What are you currently reading?

[Mandryka]

No, the only other one I've read is Désert, and that was a long time ago, and very different from Le Procès-verbal. Oh, and I think I read some of his kid's stories.

I have a feeling that Le Clézio changed, became more "mystical" -- which doesn't appeal to me. That's why I want to explore the earlier books. The next one I'll read will be Le Déluge I think. I may have a go at Désert again.

[Mandryka]

Great stuff. I read it many years ago, and was really impressed. The novel is also the first in Duras's "Indian Cycle" (for lack of a better term), as the character of Anne-Marie Stretter appers again in Le Vice-Consul and later becomes central in the extraordinary India Song (book, play, film).

I couldn't get on with The Vice Consul. I didn't like the Vice Consul's character, and I abandoned it after a description of teenage scatalogical antics in a pensionnat. I have started this though, and it looks very promising indeed.

[ritter]

I couldn't get on with The Vice Consul. I didn't like the Vice Consul's character, and I abandoned it after a description of teenage scatalogical antics in a pensionnat. I have started this though, and it looks very promising indeed.

That's a nice one, with the texts she wrote for Libération. She recorded some excerpts (in her unmistakeable, seductive voice) as La jeune fille et l'enfant. I've had it on cassette since it was first released, and I think that is the only format ever released (no transfer to CD AFAIK, and not on YouTube either).

[Mandryka]

This seems a bit spoiled by the music.


http://marguerite-duras.blogspot.com/

[SimonNZ]

still going with Winchester's "Exactly", but finished these two in the meantime:



I would have preferred Hillbilly Elegy to be more sociology and less autobiography, but it was still a good read

[stingo]

I would have preferred Hillbilly Elegy to be more sociology and less autobiography, but it was still a good read

Agreed. Serving two masters wasn't the best course I felt.

I'm reading The Fiery Cross by Diana Gabaldon and A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

[j winter]

A nice little Christmas treat, Isaacson's recent bio of Leonardo da Vinci.  I have no more than a poor layman's understanding of Renaissance art, so I've been looking forward to this one.  It's outstanding so far, very readable.  And the physical hardcover is nice as well, lots of color illustrations on good paper.

[Ken B]

Death in Captivity
Michael Gilbert

A murder mystery set in a POW camp. First published in 1947 or so. Very enjoyable.

[LKB]

Rereading The Rise and Fall of The Dinosaurs by Steven B. ( I can't remember the last name and don't have the book at hand atm. )

This second time through I'm just as impressed as l was with the first reading. One of the best science books I've read in fifty years.

Digging,

LKB

[Karl Henning]

Rereading The Rise and Fall of The Dinosaurs by Steven B. ( I can't remember the last name and don't have the book at hand atm. )

This second time through I'm just as impressed as l was with the first reading. One of the best science books I've read in fifty years.

Digging,

LKB

Embracing my inner ankylosaur....

[j winter]

Rereading The Rise and Fall of The Dinosaurs by Steven B. ( I can't remember the last name and don't have the book at hand atm. )

This second time through I'm just as impressed as l was with the first reading. One of the best science books I've read in fifty years.

Digging,

LKB

I actually have that on Audible, may finally be time to give it a listen.... I'm a sucker for a good popular science book...

[Alek Hidell]

Steve Brusatte is his name:

[asin]0062490435[/asin]

As for my own reading, just finished:

[asin]0993597505[/asin]
This is a self-published book and is a bit amateurish, but the author is admirably interested in getting at the truth (e.g., the myth of the "Chernobyl divers"), there are a lot of good photos of the abandoned city of Pripyat, and the explanation of the circumstances of the accident are probably about as clear as something so complex can be.

And I'm about to begin:

[asin]0393321282[/asin]

[SimonNZ]

^ what is "the myth of the "Chernobyl divers""?

I'll be very interested to hear what you think of the Hoover, and what new information or opened files the author might have had access to.

[Alek Hidell]

^ what is "the myth of the "Chernobyl divers""?

After the accident, firefighters pumped water into the reactor to try to cool it. It flooded the basement with water, which became highly radioactive. It was feared that molten nuclear material was going to melt down through the floors to this water, causing a steam explosion that would have destroyed the entire Chernobyl plant with its three other reactors. One nuclear physicist feared that such a blast could have a force of three to five megatons and would render a large portion of Europe uninhabitable for hundreds of thousands of years.

Anyway, three men volunteered to go down into the water to open some valves to drain it. The myth had it that these three had to submerge themselves in this water, in near-darkness, somehow found the valves even after their flashlight had conked out, and then succumbed to acute radiation poisoning not long afterward. A romantic myth of three brave, selfless heroes.

Well, they were brave indeed, and their finding the valves a near-miracle, but in fact the water was only knee-high (some of it had already been pumped out) and none of the men died shortly thereafter. One died in 2005 of a heart attack and the other two were still alive as of 2015.

[JBS]

Chatty, sometimes superficial, but informative


Three Mile Island, Chernobyl, and Fukushima each get a chapter. He doesn't mention the divers, probably because his emphasis is on the events that caused the meltdown.

[Mandryka]

Read less than half but I'm convinced it's a major major masterpiece!

[ritter]

Read less than half but I'm convinced it's a major major masterpiece!

That's one I still haven't tackled. Our departed fellow GMGer NikF spoke very highly of it IIRC, and the book enjoys a huge reputation. Sometime soon...

[SimonNZ]

Started:

[Mandryka]

That's one I still haven't tackled. Our departed fellow GMGer NikF spoke very highly of it IIRC, and the book enjoys a huge reputation. Sometime soon...

I enjoyed it so much, despite not being at all clear what the point of it is supposed to be, that I'm now on this. I'm normally not interested in war memoirs but this is more an exploration of the idea of memoir, of biographical writing. And that's OK.

[SimonNZ]

For a short read North Korea Confidential was remarkably comprehensive and easily recommended, particularly for dispelling myths and images of the North Korean people as either fanatical leader-worshipers or mindless suffering robots. Particularly good on the cracks in authority opening in black market trading and easy bribery, and in USB and cell phone technology allowing a greater understanding of the outside world and ease in sharing such.


Knocked off a couple of quickies:



Wasn't previously aware PJ O'Rourke had put out a collection of his writings on the 2016 election. Some pieces are among his best work, others especially when he gets into a more general rant on his libertarian worldview are much less so, but then perhaps I'm predisposed to feel that way.

His one-of-a-kind eventual endorsement of Clinton ("She is the second-worst thing that could happen to America.") is worth a read on its own:

https://www.thedailybeast.com/pj-orourke-im-endorsing-hillary-clinton-the-devil-we-know

started both of these: