What are you reading right now or more recently?

[Tolya Ugajin]

We've had the how are you feeling, what are you watching, and what are you listening to threads, so how about "what are you reading"?

Currently, I'm reading a book I got for Christmas called "The Triumph of Empire" by Michael Kulikowski, which covers the period of Roman history from Hadrian's reign (interestingly, the first definitively homosexual Roman emperor) through Elegabalus (the first definitively trans emperor, although he skips that bit), to Constantine (the first openly Christian emperor).  He does a nice job covering not just Roman history, but changes in their society and how changes in cultures and societies from China to Poland affected Rome.  A good read.

So what's on your reading list?

[Pamela Galli]

Twitter, NYTimes, Washington Post, Atlantic. 
 

I have a stack of books I will get to someday when our republic is not being dismantled. 

[Luna Bliss]

Curtis White’s just-released book, “Living in a World That Can’t Be Fixed: Reimagining Counterculture Today".

"White—“the most inspiringly wicked social critic of the moment" (Will Blythe, Elle)—shows how the products of our so-called resistance, from Ken Burns to Black Panther, rarely offer a meaningful challenge to power, and how our loyalty to the “American Lifestyle” is self-defeating and keeps us from making any real social change".

Edited December 29, 2019 by Luna Bliss

[LyricalBookworm]

I'm rereading Anne of Green Gables book series. 😊

[Garnet Psaltery]

My first ex-husband sent me Simon Winder's 'Danubia' for a Christmas present.  I'll read it as soon as I can find my magnifying glass as the print is rather small for my eyes.  I'm currently halfway through 'The Bennett Playbill' by Joan Bennett and Lois Kibber; it's signed by Joan, though to someone else, who might be dead by now.

[Janet Voxel]

[Eva Knoller]

[Eva Knoller]

22 minutes ago, janetosilio said:

Love! But will he ever release the last book?!?

eta: 2020 release. Yay!

Edited December 29, 2019 by Eva Knoller
I looked stuff up.

[Janet Voxel]

4 minutes ago, Eva Knoller said:

Love! But will he ever release the last book?!?

The last I read, he felt like he wrote himself into a corner and has been slowly working his way out. So it’ll be like waiting for Winds of Winter.

8 minutes ago, Eva Knoller said:

Speaking of this! It reminded me that Margaret Atwood wrote a sequel to A Handmaid’s Tale. That’s next on my list.

 

 

[Eva Knoller]

1 minute ago, janetosilio said:

The last I read, he felt like he wrote himself into a corner and has been slowly working his way out. So it’ll be like waiting for Winds of Winter.

Speaking of this! It reminded me that Margaret Atwood wrote a sequel to A Handmaid’s Tale. That’s next on my list.

 

 

Oh yes! I need to add this to my list. Thanks for the reminder. 🙏 

[kali Wylder]

[Ivanova Shostakovich]

[CaerolleClaudel]

To The Lighthouse by someone noone is afraid of anymore.

[CaerolleClaudel]

2 hours ago, Luna Bliss said:

Curtis White’s just-released book, “Living in a World That Can’t Be Fixed: Reimagining Counterculture Today".

"White—“the most inspiringly wicked social critic of the moment" (Will Blythe, Elle)—shows how the products of our so-called resistance, from Ken Burns to Black Panther, rarely offer a meaningful challenge to power, and how our loyalty to the “American Lifestyle” is self-defeating and keeps us from making any real social change".

Interesting. I don't really read Elle, but I didn't know dudes wrote for it.

[Rolig Loon]

This is a cute book, a pithy short read

The one I just started, though is The Starless Sea, by Erin Morgenstern, who wrote The Night Circus a few years ago. She has a wonderful mastery of language and mental imagery. My daughter sent it to me for Christmas. 

Other than those two, I agree with Pam:

3 hours ago, Pamela Galli said:

Twitter, NYTimes, Washington Post, Atlantic. 

except for Twitter, which I refuse to become involved with.

[Pamela Galli]

1 minute ago, Rolig Loon said:

This is a cute book, a pithy short read

The one I just started, though is The Starless Sea, by Erin Morgenstern, who wrote The Night Circus a few years ago. She has a wonderful mastery of language and mental imagery. My daughter sent it to me for Christmas. 

Other than those two, I agree with Pam:

except for Twitter, which I refuse to become involved with.

Twitter is where those same news and opinion writers comment on the news of the minute. 

[Scylla Rhiadra]

I'm slowly re-reading and cherishing Henry James' The Portrait of a Lady, a book I love but haven't looked at in decades.

And I'm about to start Jeanette Winterson's Frankissstein, which I was hoping to get for Christmas but didn't. So, I've given in and bought my own copy.

In related news, I was given a Kobo for Christmas. It's currently sitting on my sideboard, smiling at me in a hopeful and friendly sort-of-way. I'm responding with a suspicious eye. I like paper.

[Rolig Loon]

10 minutes ago, Scylla Rhiadra said:

I'm slowly re-reading and cherishing Henry James' The Portrait of a Lady, a book I love but haven't looked at in decades.

Yes! In fact, any of Henry James' writings is worth re-reading periodically.  I have a growing list of books that I pull back off the shelf every few years, like Hess's Siddhartha. I do enjoy authors whose work continues to offer more insights each time you come back to it.

[Luna Bliss]

1 hour ago, Scylla Rhiadra said:

Jeanette Winterson's Frankissstein

Oh wow I think I have to get this NOW!  Taking Frankenstein further, or in new directions 

I saw the movie Mary Shelley recently and it was great...I wonder how Frankissstein riffs off it:

 

Edited December 29, 2019 by Luna Bliss

[SpiritSparrow Skydancer]

[Luna Bliss]

2 hours ago, Ivanova Shostakovich said:

Is it good?

[Gregorian Chant]

[Eva Knoller]

1 hour ago, Rolig Loon said:

This is a cute book, a pithy short read

 

The one I just started, though is The Starless Sea, by Erin Morgenstern, who wrote The Night Circus a few years ago. She has a wonderful mastery of language and mental imagery. My daughter sent it to me for Christmas. 

Other than those two, I agree with Pam:

except for Twitter, which I refuse to become involved with.

I really enjoyed The Night Circus. Adding this one to my list!

@Scylla Rhiadra I had to Google Kobo. I have never heard of that eReader!  I felt the same way as you about my Kindle when I first got it, but I really love it now. I do still read a lot of actual paper books, but the Kindle is so convenient for travel.

I can tell I am going to get a lot of great ideas from this thread. I hope it stays alive.

[Pamela Galli]

For those not reading Twitter:

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/12/27/opinion/sunday/twitter-social-media.html?smtyp=cur&smid=tw-nytopinion

[CaerolleClaudel]

5 hours ago, Pamela Galli said:

Twitter, NYTimes, Washington Post, Atlantic.

I rarely go to Twitter, but the last three I like a lot. Unfortunately they are all behind paywalls now (The Atlantic switched only recently), and I am too cheap to subscribe, so I rarely read any of them. The Atlantic temps me, as I used to read a lot of their articles, and it is only $5/month IIRC.