NPR

Finished that book by Huey Newton. It picked up a little bit in the last third, it was disappointing overall but still worth reading.

Talks way too much about the violent elements of the Black Panthers and pays virtually no attention to the social work and the other elements of the party. In the last chapter he even acknowledges that the party was too militaristic in nature and too obsessed with being violent and confrontational with the establishment but then that is more or less all he writes about.

It's a good jumping off point for further reading - there must be a better book on TBP that dives into their community work, ideology and fleshes out their manifesto a little more fully.

Best quote was how he talks about how social change has to come from the bottom up and not be advocated for by celebrities living in ivory towers:

"Too many so called leaders of the movement have been made into celebrities and their revolutionary fervor destroyed by mass media. They become Hollywood objects and lose identification with the real issues. The task is to transform society; only the people can do that - not heroes, not celebrities, not stars".

Even though Jared Diamond’s book Guns, Germs and steel was written some time ago, it is well worth a read. In it he explains why certain cultures develop in different ways, depending on nature, geographic resources. For instance if there is no iron, then your weapons will be different.

Fangle wrote: Tue Apr 20, 2021 10:13 pm Even though Jared Diamond’s book Guns, Germs and steel was written some time ago, it is well worth a read. In it he explains why certain cultures develop in different ways, depending on nature, geographic resources. For instance if there is no iron, then your weapons will be different.

It's a great book

Slick wrote: Mon Apr 05, 2021 5:55 pm Finished Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart over the weekend after a recommendation from HKJC.

Don’t know how often a first book wins the Booker Prize but that seems pretty impressive.

It’s about a boy growing up in Glasgow in the 80’s with an alcoholic mother and all her trials and tribulations. It is beautifully written and completely absorbing whilst being unrelentingly depressing.

I couldn’t put it down and would recommend, particularly to Scots and particularly to West Coasters just be prepared to have your own hopes dashed and dashed again until it becomes quite personal

Adiga's book 'White Tiger' achieved the same feat and it's one of the best pieces of fiction I've ever read so looking forward to Stuart's book.

Whatever happened to HKCJ? Haven't seen him post in about a year.

Caley_Red wrote: Thu Apr 22, 2021 6:24 am

Slick wrote: Mon Apr 05, 2021 5:55 pm Finished Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart over the weekend after a recommendation from HKJC.

Don’t know how often a first book wins the Booker Prize but that seems pretty impressive.

It’s about a boy growing up in Glasgow in the 80’s with an alcoholic mother and all her trials and tribulations. It is beautifully written and completely absorbing whilst being unrelentingly depressing.

I couldn’t put it down and would recommend, particularly to Scots and particularly to West Coasters just be prepared to have your own hopes dashed and dashed again until it becomes quite personal

Adiga's book 'White Tiger' achieved the same feat and it's one of the best pieces of fiction I've ever read so looking forward to Stuart's book.

Whatever happened to HKCJ? Haven't seen him post in about a year.

He got a job.

Still well though, had a beer (outside, in a garden) with him at the weekend.

tabascoboy wrote: Sat Jul 04, 2020 7:38 am Currently reading 'The Mirror & the Light'. I know some find Mantel's prose and style a little, pedantic and verbose I guess but it's an immersive first 100 pages or so thus far.

Just bought it - half price at W H Smith. Intimidatingly thick but I read recently that at 18 pages a day it'll take 48 days, which is how long Cromwell spent in the Tower awaiting execution. Apologies for the spoiler.

Apologies if it's been recommended already but I just finished Say Nothing by Patrick Radden Keefe which is about The Troubles.

My knowledge of Northern Irish history is shocking in that I know really nothing. I found the book absolutely fascinating. The way he wrote it was really clever tying the story up in a murder mystery. I think a story for another thread but Northern Ireland surely is one of the most interesting parts of British history from creation to current day. I wonder why it's not taught in schools (I don't wonder but it should be!).

I like neeps wrote: Tue May 11, 2021 4:10 pm Apologies if it's been recommended already but I just finished Say Nothing by Patrick Radden Keefe which is about The Troubles.

My knowledge of Northern Irish history is shocking in that I know really nothing. I found the book absolutely fascinating. The way he wrote it was really clever tying the story up in a murder mystery. I think a story for another thread but Northern Ireland surely is one of the most interesting parts of British history from creation to current day. I wonder why it's not taught in schools (I don't wonder but it should be!).

It absolutely should be particularly as violence seems to have been steadily increasing since the end of BANNER.

I'll look that out.

Currently into the second half of Mussolini's War by John Gooch - an account of the Italian State at war from 1935 - 1943.

Really, really well written and very accessible to people like myself who only knew the basics of Fascist Italy. Nice to have a history of the War in the Med/ME that doesn't just write off the Italians as useless cowards or a sideshow to Rommel, and gives you an idea of the levels of delusion at the top and suffering at the bottom.

I knew the Italians had sent troops to the Eastern Front, but hadn't realised the extent or the cost of that contribution either.

As I say, very readable and fast paced. Highly recommended.

Slight tangent, but bought a few Dr Seuss books at a charity shop to read to the kids. Never read them before, they are absolutely brilliant.

GogLais wrote: Thu Apr 29, 2021 5:49 pm

tabascoboy wrote: Sat Jul 04, 2020 7:38 am Currently reading 'The Mirror & the Light'. I know some find Mantel's prose and style a little, pedantic and verbose I guess but it's an immersive first 100 pages or so thus far.

Just bought it - half price at W H Smith. Intimidatingly thick but I read recently that at 18 pages a day it'll take 48 days, which is how long Cromwell spent in the Tower awaiting execution. Apologies for the spoiler.

Finished ahead of schedule, it's at least as good as the other two in the trilogy.

The Wright Brothers by David McCullough is a very thorough biography of the brothers all the way from childhood through the development of their planes. They were much more successful in marketing their ideas in Europe, especially France than back in the USA where there was originally a lot of sceptisism.

In later years as their success was recognized it seems as if they had to spend an inordinate amount of time defending their multiple patents in court.

Read "It was all a lie, how the Republican party became Donald Trump" this weekend. 200 pages, easy read, meh, nothing particularly new in there. The author, Stuart Stevens was a Republican operative, working on the Presidential campaigns of W Bush in 2000 and 2004 and Romney in 2012. Prior to that he did tons of work for GOP candidates in campaigns at various levels.

The premise of the book is that it is a mea cupla, he takes responsibility for the fact Trump was a continuation of the Republican parties policies and rhetoric rather than an aberration. He acknowledges that the GOP's commitment to being fiscally conservative is demonstrably phony. He accepts that the party has cultivated an anti science, anti immigrant, racist dog whistle culture that could only possibly appeal to a specific demographic and in pursuing that strategy it is doomed to failure in future elections.

The thing is he lays out all these points (which are to be honest pretty well known) in such a forceful way that I find it hard to understand why he worked for the GOP as long as he did. I think a lot of these never Trump types are charlatans every bit as much as he is.

Some way into this now and it is the best non-fiction i have read in the last year.

Amazing man living is in a topsy-turvy world

Also includes fascinating passage on a man I had never heard of: George Perkins Marsh

Monk wrote: Mon May 24, 2021 7:51 am Some way into this now and it is the best non-fiction i have read in the last year.

Amazing man living is in a topsy-turvy world

Also includes fascinating passage on a man I had never heard of: George Perkins Marsh

Yes, Humboldt had quite the interesting life. Good book.

Slick wrote: Mon Apr 05, 2021 5:55 pm Finished Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart over the weekend after a recommendation from HKJC.

Don’t know how often a first book wins the Booker Prize but that seems pretty impressive.

It’s about a boy growing up in Glasgow in the 80’s with an alcoholic mother and all her trials and tribulations. It is beautifully written and completely absorbing whilst being unrelentingly depressing.

I couldn’t put it down and would recommend, particularly to Scots and particularly to West Coasters just be prepared to have your own hopes dashed and dashed again until it becomes quite personal

I was just coming onto this thread to recommend. It is an utterly brilliant book which just nails Glasgow - it's as funny as it is tough as it is bleak. Reading through I could relate lots of the side characters to people I know - those typical Glasgow workers and scrappers and their tough-as-nails wives, all blessed with mouths like the Clyde Tunnel.

The absolute high point of the book and low point in the story is where the only well-meaning adult male in the book destroys Shuggie's mum for good - I can't recall ever loudly cursing while reading a book before but it happened then.

clydecloggie wrote: Tue May 25, 2021 9:20 am

Slick wrote: Mon Apr 05, 2021 5:55 pm Finished Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart over the weekend after a recommendation from HKJC.

Don’t know how often a first book wins the Booker Prize but that seems pretty impressive.

It’s about a boy growing up in Glasgow in the 80’s with an alcoholic mother and all her trials and tribulations. It is beautifully written and completely absorbing whilst being unrelentingly depressing.

I couldn’t put it down and would recommend, particularly to Scots and particularly to West Coasters just be prepared to have your own hopes dashed and dashed again until it becomes quite personal

I was just coming onto this thread to recommend. It is an utterly brilliant book which just nails Glasgow - it's as funny as it is tough as it is bleak. Reading through I could relate lots of the side characters to people I know - those typical Glasgow workers and scrappers and their tough-as-nails wives, all blessed with mouths like the Clyde Tunnel.

The absolute high point of the book and low point in the story is where the only well-meaning adult male in the book destroys Shuggie's mum for good - I can't recall ever loudly cursing while reading a book before but it happened then.

I honestly still haven't quite got over that and it's exactly the bit I meant when I said it gets quite personal.

Also absolutely agree about it nailing Glasgow.

I saw the other day that the author is working on a screenplay.

Just finished East of Eden. As close to perfection as a novel gets for me and possibly a new favourite book.. certainly top 5. The last page I had goosebumps. Steinbeck you magnificent bastard.

I really enjoyed Age of Ambition (mentioned upthread, I highly recommend it - its the story of modern China as told through the lives of some of its aspirational young strivers) so I have another China book on the go.

It's Challenging China by Sam Kaplan, a manifesto for how the US can essentially get the best of China on the international stage. Authors position is more or less that the US is better served being non confrontational but demonstrating its commitment to its allies, international institutions and to liberal democracy. He seems to believe that over the long haul China becoming a more liberal and open society is an inevitability because when living standards rise and people become more prosperous they also hanker for more political and social freedom. He cites Taiwan as an example. He also says that China will have some challenges shortly due to the fact that they have an ageing population and their economic growth has slowed.

One of his proposals that made a lot of sense was to open up jobs and immigration pathways to Chinese students studying in the US so that upon graduation rather than returning to China and taking their expertise with them they will stay.

HKCJ wrote: Mon May 31, 2021 9:52 pm Just finished East of Eden. As close to perfection as a novel gets for me and possibly a new favourite book.. certainly top 5. The last page I had goosebumps. Steinbeck you magnificent bastard.

I probably preffered Grapes of Wrath very slightly more, but both are superb. I really hated Of Mice and Men when I read it years ago, maybe I need to revisit it.

I was sure it was one of the bored who suggested Amor Towles, A Gentleman in Moscow. Well thank you very much. Really enjoyed it. Great story, great wit and some superb characterisation.

Might go for a Greene or perhaps Hemingway next ..... will see.

Slick wrote: Tue Jun 01, 2021 8:54 am

HKCJ wrote: Mon May 31, 2021 9:52 pm Just finished East of Eden. As close to perfection as a novel gets for me and possibly a new favourite book.. certainly top 5. The last page I had goosebumps. Steinbeck you magnificent bastard.

I probably preffered Grapes of Wrath very slightly more, but both are superb. I really hated Of Mice and Men when I read it years ago, maybe I need to revisit it.

Well once again you’re wrong. EOE>GOW & OMAM is a classic!

Also JS>GG. Just sayin’.

Vball - pretty sure I recommended Gentleman of Moscow on the old board so I’m happy to take the credit. Ive read his Rules of Civility as well.. it’s OK but not nearly as good.. quite Gatsbyesque.

HKCJ wrote: Tue Jun 01, 2021 4:45 pm

Slick wrote: Tue Jun 01, 2021 8:54 am

HKCJ wrote: Mon May 31, 2021 9:52 pm Just finished East of Eden. As close to perfection as a novel gets for me and possibly a new favourite book.. certainly top 5. The last page I had goosebumps. Steinbeck you magnificent bastard.

I probably preffered Grapes of Wrath very slightly more, but both are superb. I really hated Of Mice and Men when I read it years ago, maybe I need to revisit it.

Well once again you’re wrong. EOE>GOW & OMAM is a classic!

Also JS>GG. Just sayin’.

Vball - pretty sure I recommended Gentleman of Moscow on the old board so I’m happy to take the credit. Ive read his Rules of Civility as well.. it’s OK but not nearly as good.. quite Gatsbyesque.

Absolute joke of a poster

vball wrote: Tue Jun 01, 2021 4:08 pm I was sure it was one of the bored who suggested Amor Towles, A Gentleman in Moscow. Well thank you very much. Really enjoyed it. Great story, great wit and some superb characterisation.

Might go for a Greene or perhaps Hemingway next ..... will see.

If you would like any tips on Greene, just let me know. And ignore HKCJ from now on.

Read Son of Hamas and would give it a 6/10.

Basically about a lad (Mosab Hassan Yousef) whose Dad was high up in Hamas (one of the founders) but he did not buy into the movement and he ended up being an informant for the Israeli's (Shin Bet). With the material he had to write this book it should have been a page turner but it was really poorly written. Hard to gauge if Mosab was really a good guy who did not like what Hamas were doing or if he was playing both sides of the conflict for personal gain. Sometimes it feels like these double agent types are actually just opportunists rather than people with a conscience who want to save the lives of innocent people.

I got Stalin's Englishman (about one of the Cambridge uni Russian spies) over the weekend so will probably give that a go this week.

Read a book about Practical Logic, by Vincent E Barry and Douglas Scorrio about 25 years ago, that had a terrific impact on me.

If only the rest of the UK electorate could do their civic duty and just improve their bullshit detectors by reading the first 40 or 300 pages of this book (that explains logical fallacies), there would be no endless Tory governments and no Brexit.

Instead every gawdamned right wing populist cunt, with half a clue gets to use all this shit against the UK population, with impunity.

We are all over eighteen when we vote, so no excuse to be ignorant as shite, lazy and easily susceptible to this sort of stuff.

https://www.abebooks.co.uk/Practical-Lo ... G8EALw_wcB

Just reread 'under the frog' by tibor Fischer. Phenomenal short novel

Happyhooker wrote: Mon Jun 07, 2021 9:19 pm Just reread 'under the frog' by tibor Fischer. Phenomenal short novel

I read that last year. Bit weird for me but had it’s moments. Did you know Fischer is a Bromley lad?

HKCJ wrote: Tue Jun 08, 2021 5:34 am

Happyhooker wrote: Mon Jun 07, 2021 9:19 pm Just reread 'under the frog' by tibor Fischer. Phenomenal short novel

I read that last year. Bit weird for me but had it’s moments. Did you know Fischer is a Bromley lad?

He's very pretentious for someone from bromley!!

The thought gang by him is worth reading as well, I wouldn't bother with the rest of his stuff

Stalin's Englishman is very good. I've got as far as 1940.

There were seemingly a great many Marxist academics and students at Cambridge back in the 30's. It's interesting to note that they really were well intentioned - they had a great deal of sympathy for the plight of the working classes during the depression and they saw Marxism as the bulwark to fascism. It is telling that when the Soviet Union signed the non aggression pact with Hitler Burgess and others were actually crushed.

Burgess himself was an interesting fellow, a promiscuous homosexual and a drunk. He had an absentee father (he was in the Navy) and he was a real mothers boy.
The author says that it was a common theme amongst the Cambridge spies.

This is a talk on the book by the author:

Coming towards the end of Consider Phlebas.

Have read The Algebraist before so was looking forward to another round of dilettante civilisations. Bit of a meandering storyline but with writing this good, who cares.

Happyhooker wrote: Tue Jun 08, 2021 1:27 pm

HKCJ wrote: Tue Jun 08, 2021 5:34 am

Happyhooker wrote: Mon Jun 07, 2021 9:19 pm Just reread 'under the frog' by tibor Fischer. Phenomenal short novel

I read that last year. Bit weird for me but had it’s moments. Did you know Fischer is a Bromley lad?

He's very pretentious for someone from bromley!!

The thought gang by him is worth reading as well, I wouldn't bother with the rest of his stuff

Hahaha he is. I’m guessing that must have been the Latin and French at Cambridge. I do enjoy this quote though

“As suburbs go, Bromley's not bad. But as David Bowie and Hanif Kureishi have observed, you do want to get out of there quickly.“

Uncle fester wrote: Tue Jun 08, 2021 6:00 pm Coming towards the end of Consider Phlebas.

Have read The Algebraist before so was looking forward to another round of dilettante civilisations. Bit of a meandering storyline but with writing this good, who cares.

This reminds me, I need to do a re-read of the Culture books.

Just finished Providence Lost by Paul Lay - a fantastic account of the Protectorate. Very readable and accessible and very much helps understand the foundations of the British state.
Intellectually a fascinating era for the country.

Paddington Bear wrote: Fri Jun 11, 2021 9:00 am Just finished Providence Lost by Paul Lay - a fantastic account of the Protectorate. Very readable and accessible and very much helps understand the foundations of the British state.
Intellectually a fascinating era for the country.

Ah, this is on my wishlist after he was on the Tom Holland and Dominic Sandbrook podcast. It's definitely a period I would like to know more about.

robmatic wrote: Fri Jun 11, 2021 9:30 am

Paddington Bear wrote: Fri Jun 11, 2021 9:00 am Just finished Providence Lost by Paul Lay - a fantastic account of the Protectorate. Very readable and accessible and very much helps understand the foundations of the British state.
Intellectually a fascinating era for the country.

Ah, this is on my wishlist after he was on the Tom Holland and Dominic Sandbrook podcast. It's definitely a period I would like to know more about.

Yes, have to say that whilst I've always known a fair amount about the Civil Wars I could only give a five minute summary of the Protectorate itself. Really fascinating stuff and breaks down the religious element so it is very accessible.

US Open final round is shaping up to be a corker

I just hope the doping cunt Deshambles doesn't win it !

It'd be really fitting if Rahm won it all this weekend, after being robbed two weeks ago

Is the book out already?

Yet to finish Stalin's Englishman but did finish another half read book over the weekend - Escape from Camp 14 about a young man who escaped from a concentration camp in North Korea.

The abuse that he received wasn't earth shatteringly surprising but what was interesting was all the information about how hard it is for people who escape the camps to actually live functional lives afterward. The PTSD, the inability to trust anyone, paranoia, self loathing, guilt and such. It is very hard for them to sustain relationships. Also interesting to note that many young South Koreans are not in favour of unification because it would cost the country a lot of money and they have no sentimental attachment to the north.