What are you currently reading?

[Mn Dave]

A damn good book about the Dust Bowl which I really knew nothing about.

[karlhenning]

Revisiting, with indescribable glee, Robt Sheckley's Dramocles — An Intergalactic Soap Opera

[Kontrapunctus]

In preparation to our summer trip to "The Pulse".  This 1943 Pulitzer holds up very well and fortunately Ms. Forbes can write at an engaging level.  (Todd, this would be a good one to check out.)

Sarah Palin needs to read that book! 

[DavidW]

Sarah Palin needs to read that book! 

She can read?

[Todd]

Fruits of the modern age.  An Indian academic, educated in the US, working in Spain, writes a tome about the global economy.  I'm about a third of the way through, and it's quite good, though I could do without some of the name dropping and jumping around.

The basic premise is that there are four types of global economic integration: World 0.0 - no integration, akin to pre-history; World 1.0 - competitive nation states; World 2.0 - total integration of the type believed in by some; and World 3.0 - lots of integration, but not as much as some claim.

The author uses a lot of empirical evidence to bolster his arguments, which is just lovely.  Part of his thesis is that the world is not quite as integrated as people believe, that most national production is consumed within the nation of origin (well duh), and that things like geographic distance has a huge impact on integration - eg, there's more trade between EU members than between EU members and non-members (duh again).  He also takes aim at how inadequate trade statistics are, using the iPod as one example (despite the largest portion of economic gain going to Apple, each one increases the US trade deficit), and highlighting the scale intra-company importing and exporting.  He also resolutely opposes reversion to World 1.0 that has many advocates nowadays. 

[Daverz]

I'm enjoying the HBO series (extremely gratuitous nudity and all), so started in on the book.  Martin is a good writer, but I'm not sure I'm going to stick it out for all 4 door-stopping volumes (and a 5th on the way).



The latest Culture novel. 

[DavidW]

I'm enjoying the HBO series (extremely gratuitous nudity and all), so started in on the book.  Martin is a good writer, but I'm not sure I'm going to stick it out for all 4 door-stopping volumes (and a 5th on the way).



The latest Culture novel.

I haven't seen the hbo show, but A Game of Thrones is an excellent novel, I've read it twice.  I've read the 2nd and 3rd novels as well, but now I've decided to wait for the series to end before reading on.

I bought the first Culture novel for $.99 as a rare kindle bargain.  I look forward to reading it, I hear good things about the series.

[karlhenning]

She can read?

Okay, so she needs the audio book, je-je-je!

[Bogey]

Just finished March Violets a few months ago.  Enjoyed it, but found the ending a bit much.  Let me know what you think.

[Mn Dave]

[lisa needs braces]

The premise: A doctor comes back to her town to discover that everyone has either vanished or has been brutally murdered, perhaps by (what else?) super natural forces.

[Lethevich]

Cussler has a surprisingly bad style for such a supposedly popular writer - every page offered something to annoy me. I picked this up as the only available reading material during a particularly tedious out of town wait, but I don't care what happens when the action starts moving, as the writer will no doubt be too busy describing every inane technical detail behind every piece of equipment that the characters are using. It's a relatively simple adventure story, but only an adult could enjoy this - a child would never put up with such stilted writing :\

[asin]0425177173[/asin]

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

I'm enjoying the HBO series (extremely gratuitous nudity and all), so started in on the book.  Martin is a good writer, but I'm not sure I'm going to stick it out for all 4 door-stopping volumes (and a 5th on the way).

I like the HBO series, too, though, like you, I do find the meat quota a bit high sometimes. I now have finished 'A Game of Thrones' and loved it. I do think I'll persevere, because the world and the characters are so well drawn and the story is compelling.

[Daverz]

I like the HBO series, too, though, like you, I do find the meat quota a bit high sometimes.

The last episode had only one brief glimpse of a penis and no breasts.  I wonder how that made it past HBO standards and practices.

[Mn Dave]

[Edit: Yes, it is good.]

[val]

Georges Minois:           "Charlemagne"

A long but very vivid essay about the Emperor, divided between the nostalgia of the long gone Roman Empire and the intuition of a new political and cultural entity, the Europe.

[Bogey]

Yes I see what you mean about the ending.  And it kind of fizzles out right at the end, not a great sense of closure.  I suppose if you were planning a whole series of these things then maybe that might be what you intended.

Overall I thought it a lot better, in the sense of more complex and 3-dimensional, than David Downing's "station" novels (Zoo Station, Silesian Station, Potsdam Station, etc) which I was reading before, and which plow very much the same furrow.  I don't know that I found the Philip Marlowe style of expression all that convincing - seems a bit too carefully calculated - and he doesn't have Chandler's way of making plot flow from the characters, so what you get is less of a novel and more of a whodunnit.  But I'm certainly going to read the other two.

I believe I enjoyed Stuart M. Kaminsky's "Toby Peters" books more so.  MN Dave pointed them out to me.  They seem a bit lighter, but they have all the noir quirky punch that I look for.  Very easy reads if you can find them.

[Bogey]

Thanks for the recommendation.  I shall seek those out.

Do not worry if you cannot start with the first one.  I did not and it read just fine.  The supporting characters are what make these books truly special.

[Drasko]

Could I ask you two gentlemen for several names of your favorite writers of crime pulp? I'm often in the mood to read some but don't know who to look for. Of course question extends to Minnesota Dave as well.

[Scarpia]

Could I ask you two gentlemen for several names of your favorite writers of crime pulp? I'm often in the mood to read some but don't know who to look for. Of course question extends to Minnesota Dave as well.

You didn't ask me, but the novels collected in this series of volumes would be a good start for classical American crime novels.

http://www.loa.org/crime