What Book Are You Reading?

i am currently reading ciaphas cain: for the emperor
its such a good book witty, dark very 40k. i love it but it has one little thing that irks me. the author physical descriptions of women can feel kind of shallow and creepy. so many good books ruined by this!

 

Thanks Zen! Will have to look into this!

 

Liz Cheney's 'Oath & Honor'.

 

El año que trafiqué con mujeres by Antonio Salas
He is an undercover journalist who infiltrates various groups to actually live the life as one of them to expose illegality, corruption, international connections and at times murder.
This book is about the illegal trafficking of women for the sex trade. It exposed disregard for the life of these women as well as how easy it is to break laws relating to human rights and also the complicity of officialdom.
I previously read "diario de un skin" about groups of skinheads involved with other fascist groups, the international set up, the drug dealing and again thr total disregard for human life.

 

The Fall of Super Villainy: Book 9 in the Super Villainy Saga,
Chronicling the adventures of Gary Karkofsky AKA Merciless: The Supervillain without Mercy (tm) -- by C.T. Phipp

 

Its an interesting book, and each page is a surprise---I never know what to expect. I don't quite get the plot though.

Each page has just one letter, big and small, and a picture of something.

The first page was an A a and it had an apple. The next page was, B b and it had a ball. Then it was a, C c, and there was a cat. and so on.
The page I'm on now, is an H h. I have no idea what the next page will be...

Oh! Its an, I i. I would have never guessed and a picture of an igloo. I wonder what will be on the next page...?

 

I first read that in the 70's too. I might have to go back and reread it again.

 

Ok. seriously now---joking aside---this is the book I am actually reading and it is a pretty fascinating history of numerous political dreamers in the late 1800's and the people that chased them, from Prince Peter Kropotkin, Michael Bakunin, to Vera Figner and all kinds of political figures and anarchists and members of the French Communes I didn't even know. It has everything from revolution to murder, from sex to espionage.




But then my son took me to see Napolean, and so I went through my library looking for a book I have on Napolean and Josephine. I couldnt find it, but I did find this one, which I completely forgot I had, which I am now reading. It is the only actual account we have of life in Napolean's courts by someone who lived in it---the Duchess D'Abrante's. It is filled with the scandal and juicy stuff, including tales of her own lovers as I understand---I haven't gotten too far into it. Now I want to go back and re-watch Napoleon.




I have not been to Europe since the pandemic. But what a thrill it would be to read this book on the grounds of Fontaine Bleau---the large castle outside of Paris that Napolean held his court in. There are plenty of places on the grounds to sit and read, and then maybe take a walk through the castle here and there, before reading some more.

 

Since this thread is in the fiction section, and the two I mentioned are nonfiction, this will probably be my next book:




I have read it multiple times over the years and it is one of my favorite Tom Sharpe books. If you enjoy British comedy, Tom Sharpe is one of the best. It is about this kid that is raised in an old castle in Northumbria by his grandfather. The grandfather is very much old fashioned and raised the boy in traditions that harken back to the moss troopers that defied the British in olden times. The caretaker/servant in the castle is, a piper (of course) who every evening goes into the tower and plays Northumbrian pipes. When the boy, a bastard grandson, comes of age, the old man's attorney convinces the old man to take him on a cruise and show him a bit of the world. The old man's real quest is to find whoever impregnated his daughter, who died after getting thrown from a horse into a thornbush, and gave birth to the boy, apparently in her death throes (he also fears that it may have been he himself in a fit of drunkenness while falling victim to his insatiable and deprived needs). Anyway, he takes the boy, who has no idea of the Modern world, on a cruise where he meets a girl, equally ignorant of the ways of the world and they fall in love, much to the happiness of her gold digging mother. The old man proposes to the mother as well, whereupon, back at the castle, she learns of the old man's insatiable and deprived needs. Anyway, nothing turns out the way any of them expect, a lot of people get killed, some really crazy things happen---some of which could only happen deep in the English countryside in an old castle where the understanding of laws may not have caught up to the modern day, and I have been known to laugh out loud while reading this and other Tom Sharpe books---even if, like this one, I've read them before.

I think I found this one here in the States. I have all his books. Some of them I had to go to London to buy----and I did just that----that is how much I love Tom Sharpe!

If you can't find that one---some of my other Tom Sharpe favorites-----Ancestral Vices, Blott on the Landscape, Wilt, Riotous Assembly and its sequel, Indecent Exposure. Indecent Exposure was the first book of his I ever read. I found it in a used book bin in the Philippines. I told an English friend of mine about this odd English book I found and he said I would love it and told me about Riotous Assembly. I loved it.

I read quite a bit, but very little nonfiction, and when I do, more often than not it is, comedy/humor.

 

I must try and source a second hand copy of the Alex Butterworth you just mentioned. Sounds fascinating as well as informative.

 

Most of my favorite Authors are dead and won't be offering anything new.
Piers ANthony is still going strong, and his Xanth novels are at 47 or 48 by now.

 

It is fascinating. I actually found it in the used books for sale section in the local library. It is in mint condition and hardback.

It is also fascinating to see that there were small hippie-like subcultures going back into the 1800's described in the book. There was a group of young French students, for example, that modeled themselves after a revolutionary in a novel by Chernyshevsky in 1863. They called themselves Nihilists, the term being coined by the author. "The nihilists were easy to identify: with shoulder-length hair, bushy beards, red shirts and knee boots for the men, bobbed hair and dark, unstructured clothes for the women, and a unisex fashion for blue-tinted glasses, walking staves and smoking endless cigarettes, they stood out a mile."

 

Got a copy. Should be delivered in next few days.

 

I've been reading The Secret Wife by Gill Paul. Though it's a fiction, it has a lot of historic events about last years to the last Russia Zar and his family, the Romanov. Interesting book

 

Book's here. Not starting it until I finish the current one though.

 

I bought this book back in the 70's and read it. I recently watched the British tv series, Slow Horses, and felt compelled to read this again. I am surprised at how good it is---I forgot about how fascinating it was. I am also surprised at how it seems to apply to the world today! The FSB must follow the same techniques. For example, one of the most successful and important types of agents were known as Agents of Influence. And their purpose was to shape public opinion and policy in foreign countries, and spread Russian propaganda as the truth. Think of Tucker Carlson, or those who are currently spreading Russian propaganda of Nazis in the Ukraine and other such things---things designed to make America look bad and Russia good in the current conflict there. Really fascinating read!