ChrisG reads on and on in 2024

Happy New Year to all!

I've been working on a reading plan for 2024 over the last few weeks. Last year was about 75% sci-fi/fantasy, and I expect to cut it back to closer to 50%, with some room for more classics. It also looks like the average book length will be greater, so I may end up closer to 75 than the 100+ of last year. We'll see.

Currently reading Dead Man's Walk by Larry McMurtry. It's chronologically first of the Lonesome Dove tetralogy - & I'll read all 4 in that sequence this year.

Happy reading to all for 2024!

Happy reading in 2024, Chris!

>1 ChrisG1: Merry 2024, Chris, and enjoy the McMurtry. Reading the new Life-of book was a good experience in 2023. Can't say I *like* him better, but I really appreciate his accomplishments more.

Welcome back, Chris!

>3 richardderus: Thanks, Richard - I should add that to my list - I'm trying to read his entire bibliography eventually, including his non-fiction.

>5 ChrisG1: Larry McMurtry: A Life by Tracy Daugherty was the title I was thinking of. It's honest, and not hagiographical, so a really good way to deepen your experience of his writing.

ETA touchstone

Happy New Year!! Happy Reading!! Glad you saw the Oregon thread. Love to meet you in person. : )

I recently read Dead Man’s Walk. I’ve only read Lonesome Dove before but decided I want to read all 4 in chronological order including a reread of that.

Happy New Year! Thanks for dropping by my thread.

Happy New Year, Chris! Keep up with the SFF so you can hit me with some book bullets.

Great to see you back Chris.

Happy new year.

You have the dubious pleasure of my company for another year!

1. Dead Man's Walk by Larry McMurtry - first book finished of 2024, it was first chronologically of the Lonesome Dove series. While Lonesome Dove is obviously the classic, I thought this one was not far behind. I'm biased, as McMurtry is one of my favorite authors.

>12 ChrisG1: Haven't read LD in YEARS! But I really liked the series. Might have to find me a copy of Dead Man's Walk. Congrats on first book of 24!

2. Joe Pepper by Elmer Kelton. I'll call this one a decent light entertainment. Kelton wrote this in the style of a condemned man telling his life story to the preacher sent to him for counsel while awaiting execution. The narration contained all manner of colloquialisms, poor grammar & slang you might expect from a western gunslinger.

3. Best Served Cold by Joe Abercrombie. I tried this one, as Abercrombie is a popular author of "grimdark" fantasy & this one is a standalone, rather than a series. It's a mixed review from me. There's much to like about the author's writing style - he certainly knows how to have fun with it & make it fun for the reader - but my biggest complaint is that it's overlong for what it is. As the title suggests, it's a revenge tale - mainly revenge on the part of the main character, although other characters are also following their own revenge paths (including against the main character). There are 7 men whom the main character seeks revenge against & each section of the book is dedicated to each separate victim. I felt the middle sections were a bit predictible and dragged on. But I will say the last few sections saved the book for me - some clever and entertaining twists. Expect to read some very graphic violence & sex scenes, by the nature of the genre. If that's an issue for you, then grimdark fantasy is not for you.

In the end, I give it 3 & 1/2 stars (out of 5).

4. Tales From Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin. I made short work of this, at least partly due to being homebound from our local freeze event. The book contains 5 shorter works about Earthsea, ranging from a few hundred years before the life of Ged, to shortly after. As always with Le Guin, wonderful prose & storytelling. 4 & 1/2 stars.

I am always a Le Guin fan but I haven't heard about Abercrombie yet...The title, however, perfectly describes Portland weather right now! LOL

>17 Berly: LOL - yeah, I've had enough of it. Looking forward to the milder temps ahead.

5. The Last of the Wine by Mary Renault. I read this as my January book for The War Room. It's my second Renault novel, the first being The King Must Die. She's an excellent novelist & I'm sure I'll read more of her work to come.

It's more of a coming of age story than a war story, but the Peloponnesian wars are a significant backdrop to the story. When historical fiction is done well, I feel as if I've learned something of the time & place of the novel & that's the case for this one - the Athens of Socrates' time truly came alive for me. Highly recommended.

6. Just Show Up by Drew Dyck. As the title implies, this book is about the power of "just showing up." I remember complimenting an attorney who did an outstanding job helping my family through a difficult situation & he replied with "80% of success is just showing up." He was being modest, as his skill and experience were vitally important, but was also telling an important truth - just consistently plugging away is also vital to success.

>20 ChrisG1: A very true message!! So I'll see you Saturday, right? LOL

>21 Berly: LOL - well played - yes, I am certainly planning on being there.

7. The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss. I've been meaning to read this extremely popular fantasy novel for quite awhile & finally got to it. Not hard to see why it's popular - it's a darn good story well told. Not sure I'll continue with it soon, since volume 2 is over 1100 pages & volume 3 has been overdue for years. We'll see.

Great meeting you today -- looking forward to following your reading this year.

>24 RebaRelishesReading: Likewise - I'm adding your thread to my list - we Portland area folk need to stick together...

Nice to meet you today, Chris! Hope you had good luck at Powell's.

Nice to meet you today!

>26 banjo123: Glad to meet you as well - I found a nice hardback copy of The Once and Future King. Nice to get that 30% discount!

>27 SuziQoregon: Likewise!

Jumping in with the post-meetup hello. Great to meet you.

>12 ChrisG1: Congrats on the first book of the year! I too read Lonesome Dove back in the day and really enjoyed. Never got around to hunting any other McMurtry books. I hope you enjoy the entire set in sequence.

>23 ChrisG1: I haven't read The Name of the Wind yet. I'll probably get around to it. People raved so much about Rothfuss and his debut novel that it made me a little leery. I don't think I ever recovered from the hoopla around The Bridges of Madison County versus my own opinion that it was an awful lot of purple prose and definitely overhyped and a bit of a disappointing read after all of the gushing from so many people.

Moreover, one of his most vocal proponents was a friend that I frequently butted heads with, especially when discussing books. But Rothfuss is a local Madison author, or at least southern Wisconsin author, and he's contributed to the community both publicly and behind the scenes, so definitely someone worth supporting. So I'll get to it one of these days and probably enjoy it.

>28 ChrisG1: The Once and Future King is a permanent resident of my re-read list. I wore out the paperback version years ago and the hardback is beginning to be a little shabby. Enjoy your new acquisition!

Chris--so nice to meet you yesterday!! I restrained myself and only got The Wizard of Earthsea. Thanks for saving me from getting the wrong first book in the series. Happy reading!

Another Once And Future fan here. That's a good book to have in hardcover.

8. I, Robot by Isaac Asimov. This was a reread for me - I've decided to read Asimov's entire Robot/Foundation books in his suggested sequence. I've read about half of them, spread out over decades, so I'm looking forward to the project.

January reading summary:

Books read: 8

Pages read: 3031

Longest book: The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss - 662 pgs
Shortest book: Joe Pepper by Elmer Kelton - 182 pgs

Average book length: 379 pgs

Book of the Month: Tales from Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin

Dud of the month: None - it's always nice to be able to say that...

>35 ChrisG1: Nice stats, Chris and, indeed, always nice to be able to say that :)

9. The Sword in the Stone by T.H. White - A fun read, of course, and I found myself rather reliving the Disney movie in the process, and noticing how the movie deviated from the book in various ways. I lost count of how many times my kids played that VHS.

10. Stonehenge by Bernard Cornwell. Cornwell can always be relied upon for an engaging story & this is no exception. With so little actually known about it's actual history, Cornwell creates one out of whole cloth, weaving a tale of sibling rivalry, madness, primitive religion, culminating in a herculean project. Recommended.

>38 ChrisG1: Oh my, that tempts me greatly. After a solid January, these two start you off right.

>38 ChrisG1: That does sound good. I've never read anything by Cornwell. Would this be a good place to start?

>40 RebaRelishesReading: I'd say so - especially as it's a stand-alone, while most of his books are in series. If you like this one, you might try his take on the Arthur legend, "only" a 3 book series, starting with The Winter King.

>39 richardderus: I agree, Richard! It's got me ready to swing my sword a time or two...lol

>41 ChrisG1: Thanks, Chris. I've put it on my "wish list".

11. The Cause by Joseph J. Ellis. Ellis has written extensively on the American Founding era, including Founding Brothers, and biographies of Washington & Jefferson. This volume, while covering the broad outline of the war, also focuses on the ideas and motivations of the warring parties & how things came to that pass & ultimately reached the point of no return. Recommended.

Keeping current here...Okay, love Asimov; have Earthsea in my most pressing TBR pile; fond memories of Sword in the Stone, book and game; and Stonehenge sounds very interesting!! Happy Friday and keep on reading!

12. Dry Bones by Craig Johnson. I fairly flew through this one in a day & a half. Johnson's Longmire books are a pleasure to read - a fine mixture of suspense, humor & heart. Recommended.

13. Dark Matter by Blake Crouch. Well, I can't remember the last time I flew through a 350 page novel in less than a day, but this was it. Quite the page turner. I won't call it "great literature," whatever that might mean to you, but it was a great piece of thriller writing & I enjoyed the ride.

Hi Chris! how is your day going?

>47 ChrisG1: Will you be sampling the Apple TV series based on it that comes out in May?
https://www.apple.com/tv-pr/originals/dark-matter/

>48 Owltherian: Excellent. Now watching the Super Bowl.

>49 richardderus: oh man! Another streaming subscription, lol...

>50 ChrisG1: I skipped watching it, whos winning? The chiefs or the 49ers

>52 Owltherian: By now, I expect you know the Chiefs won, which pleased me, I was pulling for them, since the 49er's beat my Detroit Lions the previous round...

>53 ChrisG1: Yeah, i heard Taylor Swift's bf yelled and pushed his coach tho- its kinda annoying that he thinks he's some 'celebrity' because Taylor is his gf.

>54 Owltherian: Kelce was well on his way to being a celebrity in the football world before ever he started dating Taylor (wonderful SNL appearance after winning the Super Bowl last year!) and yelling at Andy had to do with his passion for football, not for Taylor or celebrity.

>55 ronincats: Well it was annoying and everytime his team made a freaking touchdown it showed Taylor. Like nobody cares that Taylor is there to watch her freaking bf

>56 Owltherian: When it comes to Taylor Swift, everything gets blown out of proportion. In my entire (65 year) lifetime, I've only seen this level of hyper-celebrity a few times. The Beatles, Elvis, Michael Jackson, at their peaks...

>46 ChrisG1: >47 ChrisG1: Two awesome books!!! And it was an exciting Super Bowl to watch. Happy Tuesday!

>57 ChrisG1: Yeah, those three are pretty good still, even if two of them are dead, their music still lives on

14. Boy's Life by Robert R. McCammon. This was recommended by a couple of book-tubers I follow & am glad I tried it. It's a coming-of-age story that follows a year in the life of a 12 year old boy in a small Alabama town in 1964. I suspect it's semi-autobiographical. It weaves a murder mystery in with other adventures he and his friends have, some of which are outrageous exaggerations of his imagination. Highly recommended.

>57 ChrisG1: Beyonce...

>60 ChrisG1: Sounds interesting.

>57 ChrisG1: Maybe in the UK, you could add Oasis and Robbie Williams to that list.

Have a great weekend, Chris.

>56 Owltherian: Since the Chiefs only made 2 touchdowns I was able to bear it.

>60 ChrisG1: Sounds interesting, Chris.

>63 ronincats: Yeah, i honestly think the chiefs could have gone without it.

15. The Lions of Al-Rassan by Guy Gavriel Kay. Is it fantasy or historical fiction? I guess it's something of a blend. There is no magic or fantastical beasts in this story. The setting is a thinly disguised version of Spain in the era of the reconquest. The main characters are representatives of Muslim, Jewish & Christian factions (shown as worshipers of the sun, moon & stars), but religion plays a secondary role. The characters are excellent, the world-building richly realized, the plot has sufficient action to drive the story. Recommended.

16. Heir to the Empire by Timothy Zahn. I've never been one to read books that are the "further adventures" of popular movies or TV shows, but I saw a favorable review of this decided to give it a try. I found it fairly enjoyable - it is kind of fun to revisit those familiar characters & tropes of Star Wars. This is the first of a trilogy & I expect I'll continue on.

17. Buckskin Line by Elmer Kelton. The first of his Texas Rangers series, it's something of a coming of age story, centered on Rusty Shannon, who was orphaned during a Comanche raid as a toddler & adopted by his rescuer. His adoptive father is killed during the turmoil over Texas seceding from the Union & is encouraged to join the Rangers to get him away from his desire for vengeance. Not only his own struggle for vengeance, but also on behalf of a family he encounters in his ranging, as they are similarly victimized by confederate zealots. The story also follows Buffalo Caller, who led the raid at the beginning of the book, and kidnapped, then lost young Rusty. Their fates seem intertwined & are used as a symbol for the diminishing of the Native American, as the white civilization overtakes him.

18. Film Flam by Larry McMurtry. A collection of essays, mainly relating his experiences as a screen writer, but also waxing eloquent about the movies in general. It's a mixed bag, but I can always enjoy whatever emerges from McMurtry's typewriter.

February reading summary:

Books read: 10

Pages read: 4292

Longest book: Boy's Life by Robert R. McCammon - 625 pgs
Shortest book: Film Flam by Larry McMurtry - 225 pgs
Average book length: 429 pgs

Book of the Month: Boy's Life

Dud of the month: Again managed to avoid a dud.

March reading plan:

The Caves of Steel - Isaac Asimov (Robot/Foundation sequence)
Scepters - L.E. Modesitt (Corean Chronicles)
Comanche Moon - Larry McMurtry (Lonesome Dove series)
Mystic River - Dennis Lehane
Our Man in Havana - Graham Greene
Stormbird - Conn Iggulden (Wars of the Roses #1) (War Room Challenge)
Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy

There are some chunkers in there, so I only planned for 7. I may be a little crazy putting Anna Karenina in there during tax season...

>68 ChrisG1: Film Flam by Larry McMurtry.

Okay, dead center hit with that book bullet! Just added it to my wishlist.

I think I missed Boy's Life, though I really enjoyed McCammon's Gone South and Swan Song. You can probably skip his Usher's Passing, however; it never managed to get off the ground for me. YMMV.

Your March plan is ... ambitious!

>71 LyndaInOregon: I had not previously heard of McCammon, but I do believe I'll try some of his other books.

19. The Caves of Steel by Isaac Asimov. This is a reread for me - I had read it decades ago & hadn't really remembered much of it. I'm going through Asimov's Robot/Foundation sequence in his suggested reading order. As a novel, it's....okay. It has the form of a murder mystery, and also speculates on a future Earth with the "unthinkable" population of 8 billion people - a level we reached in 2023 (as opposed to thousands of years in the future - the book was written in 1953). He postulated that the only way to feed that population was mass-produced yeast vats. Ah well, things often don't go as foreseen. Still, the story provides a bridge to the future universe he's building & I'm looking forward to the next installment.

20. Comanche Moon by Larry McMurtry. I'm rereading the Lonesome Dove series - this time in chronological order, rather than publication order. This is the second book, chronologically. I had only rated it 3 of 5 stars in the first reading, but enjoyed it much more the second time. It's not for the faint of heart, as he does not back off from the brutal aspects of the frontier conflicts with the plains Indians. As usual, McMurtry features quirky supporting characters who provide some comic relief. Much of the characters' backstories referred to in Lonesome Dove are fleshed out here.

>74 ChrisG1: I'm not a big fan of "western novels" so I was surprised by how much I liked Lonesome Dove when I read it a few years ago. I didn't realize, however, that it's part of a series. Interesting to know but I'll have to give some thought to whether or not I want to tackle it.

>75 RebaRelishesReading: I don't believe McMurtry had a series in mind when he wrote Lonesome Dove, but he had a tendency to want to revisit his characters & continue their stories - he did that with The Last Picture Show and Terms of Endearment as well. With none of those books is it necessary to read the sequels, but I'm a McMurtry fan-boy & will ready anything & everything he writes.

Heya Chris!

21. Our Man in Havana by Graham Greene. My first GG novel & I can see why he's so popular. No doubt, I'll pick up more in the future - very enjoyable read!

>77 Owltherian: Heya Lily!

>79 ChrisG1: How are ya?

>80 Owltherian: I'm in bachelor mode - my wife is away for the weekend. Just me and the dog (Clark). Of course, I'm working because I'm a tax accountant & it's tax season, but I still get a good amount of reading in...

>81 ChrisG1: Thats good, although working on a weekend sounds terrible.

>82 Owltherian: Not the greatest, but it's the nature of my business. I do about 80% of my work in 10 weeks, so the rest of the year, I mostly don't work. Not a bad life, really.

>83 ChrisG1: Wow, i kind of wish school was like that but in a week is Spring Break

>84 Owltherian: When my kids were growing up (they've all got kids of their own now), my wife would take the kids on a trip & I stayed behind & worked. The price of being in this business. Other times of the year worked out better.

>85 ChrisG1: Seems like the time you aren't working is happy, in which with school you don't really have much time to do anything, but i think that's the same for work.

22. Mystic River by Dennis Lehane. This was recommended to me & I vaguely recalled there was a movie based on it directed by Clint Eastwood. It's a crime/mystery novel & a heckuva good one. In fact, easily one of the best I've read. 5 star recommended.

>87 ChrisG1: That one's definitely a good one! Have you read his Joe Coughlin trilogy, starting with The Given Day? Some really good stuff.

>88 drneutron: It was my first Lehane - I expect I'll go to that series next.

23. Stormbird by Conn Iggulden. My entry into the War Room Challenge for March & the first of Iggulden's War of the Roses four part series. I've previously read Iggulden's "Emperor" series about ancient Rome & enjoyed it. Completing this volume has me eager to continue, so I'll run to the library tomorrow & get the next volume. I'm a fairly typical American in my limited knowledge of British history, so I'm glad to have this kind of entertaining outlet for it.

24. The Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis. I finally got around to this - one of the few works of Lewis' fiction I hadn't read yet (I still need to read Till We Have Faces). It's basically a dream-fantasy about heaven, hell & purgatory. Lewis' insights are always provocative - I can't help but admire the way his mind works. Highly recommended.

>73 ChrisG1: We're working on the mass-produced yeast vats.

Plenty of stuff in my grocery store is labelled as some kind of meat, with "vegetable sources" in very small print. Or the name of the meat is mis-spelled, to indicate there's no actual meat in it. (e.g. "chick'n".) Or the word "Impossible" is used, which also indicates a non-meat-sourced "meat".

I guess it'll be a few more years before grains, vegetables and fruit are also replaced by "sustainably-sourced" products, and we'll be treated to similar naming conventions.

I don't know whether the (ahem) sustainable source will be yeast, or (more likely?) a genetically altered line of cells descended from some multi-cellular creature. Or when my grocery store will feature new names and loud hype for products like rat meat, as a stage on this progression.

And yes, I'd be more cheerful if I were reading this and posting later in my day.

92> There's no question in my mind that as humanity continues its unfettered and enthusiastic adherence to the "be fruitful and multiply" philosophy, there will come a time when the wasteful intermediary of domesticated meat animals will have to be discarded.

The consumption of animal flesh provides the complete protein/amino acid sequence necessary for human nutrition. Vegetarian / vegan options have to include multiple sources to get the same result. But anyone who has ever raised meat animals understands that it's a tremendously wasteful process in terms of calories in / calories out. Yes, they can convert vegetation which the human digestive system can't readily handle into the muscle mass that eventually ends up on your barbecue. But a heck of a lot of that calorie load also goes to build bone and hide and reproductive systems and internal organs that humans don't normally eat.

We're eventually going to run out of land (and water) that can be dedicated to either grazing or to the growing of feedstock for these inefficient producers of Big Macs and Chicken McNuggets. And once we have converted all non-arable land into dwelling spaces for our multitudinous species, we'll still have trouble growing vegetation of enough nutritional variety and volume to feed everyone. So it's a toss-up whether we end up with "chik'n" or with cloned muscle tissue, but I suspect that the "brave new world" will indeed have such creatures in't.

As a dedicated and enthusiastic omnivore, I am stricken with anticipatory grief.

>92 ArlieS: My goodness, that post is coming back to haunt me, lol. I'm a great deal more optimistic, perhaps influenced by recent experience, having lost 150 lbs on a meat based diet, eliminating the factory foods that have been destroying human health in recent decades. Animals aren't at all wasteful - it's the destructive mono-crop agriculture of gigantic soy/wheat/corn fields requiring ever more fertilizers to stay viable, even as they destroy topsoil. Ruminant animals restore soil & sequester carbon. The amount of land that can support ruminant animals is far, far greater than what supports row-cropping. Whatever we don't eat from animals can return to the soil - the circle of life!

25. Margaret of Anjou by Conn Iggulden. The 2nd installment of Iggulden's Wars of the Roses series. Being largely unfamiliar with this period of British history, I'm enjoying & learning quite a bit from this. Iggulden is a master of the historic fiction genre - I had previously read & appreciated his ancient Rome series.

>94 ChrisG1:
Oops, that was me who responded to your yeast-vat comment. I think I hit the "post" button instead of "reply".

Anyway, congrats on the weight loss, and particularly on kicking fake foods to the curb. (Cool Whip, anyone?)

I understand what you're saying about monoculture agriculture ... but ...
There's a huge difference between the backyard garden and the 20,000-acre cornfield, just as there's a huge difference between the backyard chicken flock and the confined feedlot for beef cattle. And I still believe that one of our potential futures as a species is one in which backyards are an unimaginable luxury and we are all living cheek-to-jowl in high rise apartment blocks and dining on Purina People Chow.

The other possibility is that we manage to stop destroying our ecosystem and get our rampant population growth under control.

I know which one I'm rooting for. But I'm also pessimistic enough to fear that things will go the other way.

Interesting discussion. Always enjoyable to swap outlooks.

>96 LyndaInOregon: I have good news for you - all of the advanced economies are already below replacement level birth rates, many are far below. And even many of the less advanced economies are, as well (but then there's Africa). Now I'll agree that 8 billion is still a lot of folks, but we are producing more than enough food now - the only cause of food insecurity at this point is political.

I do think that most of our worst agricultural practices are used because they're "cheaper," rather than "necessary to feed everyone." Most of the plans to put people on various forms of Purina People Chow (love that name) have more to do with big business profits than anything to do with human health or having enough calories for everyone.

26. Wars of the Roses: Bloodline by Conn Iggulden - 3rd book in Iggulden's series & now starting on the 4th & last one. I've enjoyed the series. Iggulden is a fine storyteller & makes learning history fun.

Have a happy Easter, folks! Our family is thankful that our (expected) premie grandson was born on Thursday at 31 weeks gestation. He stayed in there longer than the doctors expected & his lungs & kidneys are strong (the big concerns). He even managed to grow to 5 lbs 1 oz, so it's all looking hopeful!

>98 ChrisG1: Hooray for healthy lungs and kidneys! New grandbabies are exciting.

>98 ChrisG1: Wonderful news about the grandson. May he continue to thrive.

March reading summary:

Books read: 8

Pages read: 3089

Longest book: Comanche Moon by Larry McMurtry - 803 pgs
Shortest book: Caves of Steel by Isaac Asimov - 204 pgs
Average book length: 386 pgs

Book of the Month: Mystic River by Dennis Lehane

Dud of the month: Again managed to avoid a dud.

April Reading Plan:

The Naked Sun - Isaac Asimov
Badger Boy - Elmer Kelton
Thieves World - Robert Asperin
A Psalm for the Wild-Built - Becky Chambers
Way Station - Clifford Simak
For Whom the Bell Tolls - Ernest Hemingway
The Forgetting Moon - Brian Lee Durfey
More than Human - Theodore Sturgeon
The French Wars of Religion - R.J. Knecht
Ravenspur by Conn Iggulden

27. Ravenspur by Conn Iggulden. Once I read the first book of Iggulden's Wars of the Roses series, I knew I had to read them through.

>102 ChrisG1: You make reading plans? So unlike me. I just kinda stumble around. Your list includes some real blasts from the past. I used to love Thieves' World and collected a bunch of the books. I read Way Station much later in life as part of my Hugo best novel reading goal and enjoyed. Hadn't known a science fiction story had ever been set in Wisconsin, and in the Driftless Area at that!

Heh. I just looked a little further up and saw your discussion of agricultural practices and the future. My local bookstore hosted an urban farming discussion last month with A Small Farm Future by Chris Smaje intended as a starting point for discussion. Food insecurity and hunger are absolutely the result of policies and politics rather than an insufficiency of food--from the emerging famine in Gaza to the food apartheid in American cities. Large-scale resource-intensive monocultures are hugely problematic, and farm animals are definitely part of a closed-loop agricultural system, but large-scale meat production is at least as resource-intensive and hella lot more cruel than plant crops.

Science fiction dystopias love to visualize humans living in some sort of artificial environment living on some sort of artificial food because overpopulation! That just shows the profound cultural disconnect with our environment, which is actually what continues to sustain us and all the other life on the planet. I mean, I love The Terminator movies, but where were all the plants and animals and other organisms that sustain ecological systems? The oxygen in our atmosphere is a direct result of microbial processes and all that.

>105 justchris: Well, I don't always stick to the plan...

I totally agree with your observations on agricultural practices, with a slight exception that I'm more optimistic about the potential for regenerative animal farming to produce meat on a large scale, although not at as low a cost, which is driving the shift toward feedlot models & other harmful mega-concentrated methods.

Congrats on the new grandbaby!

Nothing to add on the agriculture discussion, but if anyone is interested in urban farming (with meat!) I recommend Farm City by Novella Carpenter

28. Badger Boy by Elmer Kelton. 2nd installment in the Texas Rangers series. The title character was a kidnapped white boy raised by the Comanches. The kidnapping episode occurred in book 1, and the storyline involving him really only gets going in the back third of the novel. Kelton serves up solid western fare & I find it to be a good change of pace when I want a lighter read.

Congrats on the new grandbaby! And on the significant weight loss. Sending you good wishes for tax season. : )

>109 Berly: One week to go! Heeeeeeelllllppppp!!!! (lol)

Helped my daughter with her taxes yesterday. Have to finish my own. Ugh!!

Sending help...



or maybe this?

>111 Berly: Ha! Save the wine until after the deadline - but the lifejacket, for sure!

Fair enough!! LOL

Congratulations, Chris.

>114 PaulCranswick: Thank you, Paul - my quiver is full. We're up to half a dozen grandchildren. I hold out hope for one more.

29. The Naked Sun by Isaac Asimov. Finished this last week - not sure why I didn't post it. The second of Asimov's Robot novels following on his short story collection I, Robot. The human/robot detective duo solve a case in the outer worlds after their success on earth. Asimov enjoyed testing the implications of the Three Laws of Robotics and how they might play out. Not all of it ages well, but I still enjoy it.

30. Thieves' World Ed. by Robert Asprin. This was a fun blast from the past. Published in 1978, I was in college when this came out & I read it then. I don't believe I got around to reading any of the follow ups, but they're all available on Kindle Unlimited, so I'll be picking these up every month or two for as long as I enjoy them.

31. The French Wars of Religion by R.J. Knecht. This book is a handy little summary of the basic events and background of the period. Essentially, the spread of Calvinism in France caused alarm among the powerful in France, being seen as a threat to the Catholic Church and the divine right of kings. Civil wars are nasty things, regardless of what motivates them.

32. Way Station by Clifford D. Simak. A Hugo Award winning sci-fi classic. Unlike most of the science fiction of that era, the prose is graceful & even at times poetic. It expresses the anxieties of the early nuclear age & brings forth a hopeful conclusion. Recommended.

33. A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers. I've seen a fair amount of positive attention given to this book & thought I'd give it a try. It was...okay. I'll confess I'm one of those who finds the use of the "they/them" pro-nouns to be cringey. My issue, I know. The novella length usually lends itself to doing more with the smaller amount of words, but she didn't. It felt like there just wasn't much there.

34. For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway. This was a mixed bag for me. Hemingway's work hasn't aged well. War, bullfighting & other manly pursuits of his era are no longer in favor, largely for good reason. Still, the man could spin a yarn. I got a kick out of his wording choices with regard to swearing - he used substitute words, which just seems quaint today. No doubt he was catering to the ethos of his time.

>120 ChrisG1: You're not alone in your discomfort with they/them pronouns. For me, I suspect it's less a problem with acknowledging gender fluidity than it is overcoming 79 years of listening to, being encouraged to use, and passing to my offspring the necessity of using "correct" grammar.

Yes, English is a fluid language yadyadyada. And in my head, I understand that they/them is a form of respectful address or reference. But my back teeth respond to "They is looking very happy today" with precisely the same ache that is brought forth by "I seen that car here yesterday" or "If your reading this, your to close." I suppose in 50 years or so, the usage of they/them will be as unremarkable as the usage of current gender-specific pronouns, and it will certainly outlive me.

But if they/them is passing through a graveyard 50 years from now and hears a rumbling from below, it's probably us rolling in our grave.

>122 LyndaInOregon: It will be interesting to see where that all heads - at 65 y/o, I may not see it. But I'm a bit skeptical. It seems to me there is an attempt to force this language change by ideological decree by a small minority of interested parties, rather than being anything organic with society. I consider the attempt to normalize the term "Latinx" - it went nowhere & now theyre trying "Latine", which may have a better chance.

Just got home from total knee replacement surgery. This is my second - had the other knee replaced last November. The first one was wonderfully successful & I'm optimistic about this one, too - the surgeon said it went perfectly.

Healing Mojo coming at ya'!

35. More Than Human by Theodore Sturgeon. A fine example of the kind of thoughtful, dense, idea-driven science fiction of the classic era. Although short, it's not an easy read - he makes you work for it. Whenever I thought I had a handle on the story, he shifted gears & I had to reorient. I don't do spoilers & it would be hard to say much about this book without them. Recommended.

>125 LyndaInOregon: Thanks, Linda!

>124 ChrisG1: YAY for the end of the surgeries, whammys for quick and complete healing.

>128 richardderus: Thanks, Richard - so far, so good!

>126 ChrisG1: Sadly, Sturgeon doesn't have the name recognition of Asimov, Clarke, and Heinlein, though IMHO his stuff is every bit as good, and often better, particularly when dealing with characterization.

And if he did nothing else, he left us with Sturgeon's Law. :-)

Hope your healing is going well!

36. Kabumpo in Oz by Ruth Plumly Thompson. The first book in the Oz canon written entirely by Thompson. It's a nice little tale that follows Baum's conventions of including the standard cast, but adding new characters & locations. Definitely a niche book, but I grew up on these.

>122 LyndaInOregon: I can't say I've heard anyone use "they is" rather than "they are" construction when using they/them pronouns for individuals. But I have seen "they is" construction when representing some English dialects and patois in written dialogue, right up there with "Is You Is or Is You Ain't My Baby." It may sound wrong to people unfamiliar with those vernaculars, but it is valid.

>123 ChrisG1: I can see how it can come across as some sort of "ideological decree" by a small minority, given that queer folks represent about 5.5% of the adult US population, and nonbinary (or genderfluid) only 11% of that smaller population (or 0.6% of overall population). As a comparison,

April reading summary:

Books read: 10

Pages read: 2882

Longest book: For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway - 471 pgs
Shortest book: A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers -151 pgs
Average book length: 288 pgs

Book of the Month: Way Station by Clifford D. Simak

Dud of the month: A Psalm for the Wild-Built - not a terrible book, but it just didn't work for me.

May 2024 Reading Plan

The Way of the Coyote - Elmer Kelton
Lonesome Dove - Larry McMurtry
The Robots of Dawn - Isaac Asimov
Tales from the Vulgar Unicorn - Ed. by Robert Asprin
Small Things Like These - Claire Keegan
Axis - Robert Charles Wilson
The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian - Robert E. Howard
His Majesty’s Dragon - Naomi Novik (War Room)
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn - Mark Twain

>135 ChrisG1: I'm so impressed that you have a "reading plan". My reading plan is ... whatever LTER I happen to win plus the next half-dozen books at the top of my TBR stack plus anything else that happens to grab my attention LOOK! Squirrel!

(Easily distracted? Who -- me?)

>136 LyndaInOregon: I definitely don't tie myself too tightly to the plan, but it does give me an opportunity to line things up - especially making my library holds.

37. Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan. I chose this little gem of a novella having found it on Paul Cranswick's top 15 list. It's remarkable how much could be told in a relatively small tale taking place in an Irish village in the winter of 1986. Thanks for the recommendation, Paul!

38. The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian by Robert E. Howard. In my youth, I had read the Conan books that included stories by L. Sprague de Camp & Lin Carter, in addition to Howards. This book collects only Howard stories. It's a quality edition put out by Del Rey illustrated by Mark Schultz. Recommended for those who enjoy this kind of thing.

>136 LyndaInOregon: I'm right there with you. As soon as I develop a reading plan, I go right off the rails, so I've largely given up on planning. I'm always impressed with people who are able to develop and follow a plan.

39. The Way of the Coyote by Elmer Kelton. Third in Kelton's Texas Rangers series, he always provides a solid western tale. A recurring theme of boys who are kidnapped by Comanches, some rescued, another who stays with them for years & thinks of himself as Comanche, but ends up leaving to live in Texas society again.

I think making a reading plan sounds like a great idea. I do it "light" by keeping three levels of "TBR" -- one is in plastic bins in the garage (someday), the next is a stack next to my desk (sometime soon) and the third is on a table by "my" chair (next up) -- of course things do get moved from one place to another sometimes :)

40. The Robots of Dawn by Isaac Asimov. Continuing through Asimov's Robot/Foundation sequence. It's the last of the Elijah Baley detective stories. He enjoyed exploring the implications of robots on human societies.

41. His Majesty's Dragon by Naomi Novik. The Napoleonic Wars....with dragons. Yep, this could have been done campy, but the author handled it more straightforwardly & wove an enjoyable, entertaining story.

>144 ChrisG1: A favorite of mine! The series gets into the weeds somewhat in later books, but I still enjoyed the whole thing.

42. Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry. I believe this is my 4th reading & loved it as much or more than ever. I've been reading this series in chronological order for the first time, previously in publication order. If you had to press me to choose the "Great American Novel," this would be it.

I was surprised to like Lonesome Dove when I read it years ago (I don't generally like "westerns") but I didn't realize it was part of a series. hmmmm

>147 RebaRelishesReading: McMurtry had a tendency to revisit his characters in certain novels. For example, over the years, he wrote several follow-ups to "The Last Picture Show". He first wrote a sequel to Lonesome Dove called Streets of Laredo and later followed up with 2 prequels - Dead Man's Walk and Comanche Moon which chronicled Gus and Call's younger days as Texas Rangers. I consider Lonesome Dove his masterpiece, but the other 3 are excellent, as well.

>148 ChrisG1: My TBR stack is already much to high but you are tempting me to return to Mr. McMurtry. I'll keep it in mind.

43. Sharpe's Command by Bernard Cornwell. The latest installment in Cornwell's longest series. He takes us to 1812 and the beginnings of Wellington's move from Portugal to Spain, with Sharpe (as always) doing the dirty work.

44. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain. This is actually the first time I'd gotten around to reading this. I enjoyed the Norman Rockwell illustrations of this 1942 Heritage Press edition. As I always do, I find the use of heavy dialect to be a distraction, but understand it's use.

45. The War Hound and the World's Pain by Michael Moorcock. Moorcock is known for his various SFF series' which feature various manifestations of "The Eternal Champion. Decades ago, I had read his popular "Elric of Melnibone" series and also the Corum books, which I enjoyed. This one takes the reader to our Earth during the 30 Years War, applying his "battle between Law & Chaos" thru God & Lucifer.

46. The Lincoln Lawyer by Michael Connelly. Very well executed legal/crime thriller - an entertaining read.

Lonesome Dove was so good, but I haven't read anything else by McMurtry I should try.

47. Tales From the Vulgar Unicorn Edited by Robert Asperin & Lynn Abbey. This is volume 2 of their "shared world anthology" series of Thieves' World. I'm not sure how far I'm going to go with this, but will definitely go to the 3rd one, perhaps in July.

>155 ChrisG1: I used to have the series up through The Dead of Winter. Any favorites among the recurring characters?

May reading summary:

Books read: 11

Pages read: 4268

Longest book: Lonesome Dove - Larry McMurtry - 960 pgs
Shortest book: Small Things Like These - Claire Keegan - 70 pgs
Average book length: 388 pgs

Book of the Month: Small Things Like These (Lonesome Dove doesn't count as it's a reread)

Dud of the month: None

June 2024 Reading Plan

Pillars of the Earth - Ken Follett
Robots and Empire - Isaac Asimov
Ranger’s Trail - Elmer Kelton
The City in the Autumn Stars - Michael Moorcock
The Bleeding Land - Giles Kristian
The Brass Verdict - Michael Connelly
Howards End - E.M. Forster
The Amateur Marriage - Anne Tyler
The Rise and Fall of the Neoliberal Order - Gary Gerstle

48. The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett. You wouldn't think that a historical novel set in 12th century England about the building of a cathedral of 973 pages would be a great read, but Follett manages it, as only he could. Engaging characters, political & religious conflict, love & hate - he brings it all & I'm glad I finally got around to reading it.

>159 ChrisG1: Ooh! I really enjoyed that one when I read it back in the day. Glad you liked it too.

49. The Rise and Fall of the Neoliberal Order by Gary Gerstle. A mixed bag review for me. The author presents an interesting thesis, wherein he first describes how the New Deal rose as a political order, how it declined & ultimately gave way to what he calls "the Neoliberal Order." A great deal of the content consists of breezy accounts of the last 100 years of (mostly) American history. After awhile, I began to skim these, as it was clear he had nothing original to say in these accounts. He used it to buttress his thesis, however, mostly successfully. He drew an interesting parallel between the Eisenhower & Clinton presidencies, in which he asserted that they each accepted & furthered the political orders that had been established by the opposing parties before them. He then chronicled the decline of the New Deal order through Vietnam, Watergate & the troubled economy of the 70's, which enabled Ronald Reagan to push for a "neoliberal" order. I should also credit him with noticing that the deregulation that Reagan was famous for was actually preceded by significant deregulation by the Carter Administration - in transportation & Oil pricing controls. Lastly, he chronicled the stresses that appear to presage the end of the Neoliberal Order - notably the Financial Crisis/Great Recession of 2008-9, the election of the first Black president, the increase in income & wealth inequality & the election of Donald Trump. There is indeed an increase of illiberalism on both the populist Right & Left. To me, it remains to be seen whether these trends will ultimately overturn the Neoliberal Order, or whether we will simply see more modest reforms. If it is overturned, Gerstle gave no insight as to what new political order would replace it.

50. Howards End by E.M. Forster. This is my first Forster book & I found it quite worthwhile. Interesting to see a portrayal of strong independent young women in pre-WWI England. His prose style could get a bit flowery at times, but I was impressed with his ability to bring the full cast of characters to life. Recommended.