What’cha Reading?

[hellsapoppin]

Death Comes for the Archbishop ~ Willa Cather [1927]



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_...the_Archbishop

[Sancho]

Reading Why Read Moby Dick, by Nathaniel Philbrick.

...because, Ah jess hasta know...

[spikepipsqueak]

I had a bunch of books going concurrently, in various locations.

Just finished most of them.

Wolf Hall. Hilary Mantel. HenryVIII gets lots of exposure, this is a fictionalised treatment of some of what happened at the time behind the scenes.

My Cousin Rachel. Daphne du Maurier. Shades of Rebecca and The Turning of the Screw.

The life you can save. Peter Singer. A plea for greater, and better targeted, generosity from us all. Also a very interesting examination of how foreign aid works. Or doesn't.


The Hunstman on my wall has reminded me that everybody, whether you like science fiction or not, needs to read Children of Time. Adrian Tchaikovsky.

Just read it. Let me know what you think.

[Sancho]

I’ve left the watery deep and I’m back on firm ground, specifically the intermountain west region of the U-S of A. Riders of the Purple Sage (Zane Grey) is set in 1871 in southern Utah, which at the time was not yet a state but a territory of the United States. There are Mormons and Gentiles (a word that, weirdly, Mormons use for non-Mormons). There are cowboys and cattle rustlers and gun-slingers. And there’s a pretty lady rancher who is Mormon, but unlike her fellow churchmen is not bigoted towards the gentiles of the town. And I’m not sure yet, but I’m willing to bet there’s going to be an issue with water rights. It is the desert southwest after all. I’m about a third of the way through it.

[Sancho]

Finished Riders of the Purple Sage.

I’m thinking you probably won’t find a copy of it in a Deseret Books Store (book stores and a publishing house owned by The Church Of Jesus Christ Of Latter-Day Saints, The Mormons) The book really takes a cheap shot at the Mormons, and Zane’s description of them is not even close to being historically accurate. They’re just a handy villain for him.

Aside from that, as a work of genre fiction, I thought it might fit better in the romance section than the western section. It was really just a love story with some cows, horses, six-shooters, and a lot of purple sage in it. Water rights never did figure into it as I thought it might.

Currently reading The Haunting of Hill House, by Shirley Jackson…Boo!

[bounty]

Sancho, I have perused that book by Philbrick, hoping for enlightenment, alas it didn't occur.

ah, am a little bummer zane grey didn't seem to do the trick for you---for what its worth thought, almost every western ive read seems to be a love story and more often or not, the guy gets the girl.

you might enjoy peeking here:

https://www.millennialstar.org/zane-...rmonism-today/

https://byustudies.byu.edu/wp-conten...27e8d3e9de.pdf

meanwhile, in the caine mutiny herman wouk is doing a really good job of building a story of empathy towards the sailors, and disgruntledness and incompetence as concerns captain queeg---given the title, you know something big is coming along.

[Sancho]

Hey, thanks for the links. It’s nice to know Grey had a little more nuanced view of the Mormons than it first seems in Riders. One of the characters in the book winds up leaving southern Utah and taking his girl, Bess, back to his hometown in Illinois. I wondered if this reversing of the Mormon migration west meant something.

Anyway, I didn’t hate the book. It was a fun read. In fact I’ll probably read more of Grey’s books in the future. It’s nice to know he’s there. I’d kinda like to reread Lonesome Dove now. Ya know, reading this book right after reading Moby Dick felt a little like Jake and Elwood stumbling into Bob’s Country Bunker and asking, “What kind of music do you usually have here?” And the barmaid saying, proudly, “Oh, we got both kinds — we got Country and Western.”

https://youtu.be/vS-zEH8YmiM?si=UC7Gyxg3BH8ed91z

I try to keep a little balance in my life. If I listen to Tammy Wynette song, I’m gonna need to listen to Miles Davis next.

[bounty]

I did lots of peeking here many years ago:

https://www.zgws.org/index.php

I remember that scene well---and then how they started off playing spencer davis and got pelted with beer bottles before they figured out that rawhide and stand by your man was the musical coin of the realm.

I do similarly---I make sure to add some non-fiction to the reading, and also jump around between various genres, easy reads, and harder ones, etc.

next section in wouk is the mutiny!

[Sancho]

Sheesh! Sorry Spike, I breezed right past your post whilst I was going on about westerns and romance novels and stuff. Can I just say — you have eclectic taste. That's quite the list.

Conversations on these forums sometimes reminds me of a quip by Fran Lebowitz:

The opposite of talking is not listening. The opposite of talking is waiting.

Yup. Guilty.

[bounty]

in a recent reading of the caine mutiny the author mentions some impromptu celebrations after the crew defeats queeg in the affair of the missing strawberries. among other things, they sang a bunch of songs, one them called the man who shagged o'reilly's daughter.

the song is apparently more commonly known just as o'reilly's daughter and its somewhat ribald. I was surprised by the word "shagged" in the title and the lyrics. I have been to the uk bunches of times in the 80s and it wasn't until the Austin powers movies that I first heard the word, and so I was half thinking it must have been a relatively new word, kinda like "snoggin'" in harry potter (although I might be wrong about that one too!), but apparently, its been around at least since herman wouk wrote the book, and since the song was written.

[Sancho]

Ah yes, and all this time I thought the song was — Boinking O’Reilly’s daughter. It might say something about us as a species that we have so many words to describe that action. We’ve also got a lot of words that describe drinking or getting drunk, but only a few for staying sober.

Presently reading Harlen Coben’s Deal Breaker. Pretty good so far. Totally enjoyed The Haunting Of Hill House.

[bounty]

I like Harlan coben. you can always look forward to easy reading with intriguing plots, twists and surprise endings. i'm still convinced you'll like James Rollins.

im nearing the end of the caine mutiny, its been a very thoughtful and compelling book.

[Sancho]

The court-martial and its aftermath was the best part in my humble opinion. If you liked this one, bounty, there’s a short novel from the next war you may like. The Hunters by James Salter. It’s a dark, psychological book about war, ambition, self-doubt, and air combat in the skies over the Korean peninsula. Salter writes from experience. He was an F-86 pilot in the Korean War.

[spikepipsqueak]

No need for apologies, Sancho.

The nature of fora is you reply to the things that need a reply and just enjoy the rest.

I've been enjoying the Caine discussion, and the Zane Grey talk, though it's many years since I read either and I would have no way to join in.

[bounty]

I finished the book last night and I really enjoyed wouks writing. heres a nifty little sample:

even at anchor, on an idle forgotten old ship, willie experienced the strange sensations of the first days of a new captain: a shrinking of his personal identity, and a stretching out of his nerve ends to all the spaces and machinery of his ship. he was less free than before. he developed the apprehensive listening ears of a young mother; the ears listened on in his sleep; he never quite slept, not the way he had before. he had the sense of having been reduced from an individual to a sort of brain of a composite animal., the crew and ship combined. the reward for these disturbing sensations came when he walked the decks. power seemed to flow out of the plates into his body. the respectful demeanor of the officers and crew thrust him into a loneliness he had never known, but it wasn't a frigid loneliness. through the transparent barrier of manners came the warming unspoken word that his men liked him and believed in him.

and what was particularly interesting nearing the end of the book was willie's return to his love of the girl he had left, may, and his desire to have her back in his life. ive shared this pushkin quote elsewhere. it seems worth sharing again:

"The delightful attention of women, almost the sole aim of man's exertions..." -- pushkin

thanks Sancho, i'll keep my eyes peeled for the salter book.

in the meantime, I just started house of sand and fog by andre dubus. I watched the movie some months ago and I love reading the books afterwards. the big mystery here is, I hated the ending of the movie, but I know the book ends differently---so we'll see.