What Are You Reading Right Now?
Fred Cole ·
July 31, 2012 at 10:01pm
I figured I'd just put this question out there. It might stimulate some fun discussion.
What are you reading right now?
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Comments:
Nov '10
Re: What Are You Reading Right Now?
Every one of Alan Furst's novel's, at least those beginning with Night Soldiers, is excellent, and they are best read in series as they were written. One develops a real affection for some of the minor characters who make repeated appearances and locations that do the same, in particular the "Brasserie Heininger" in Paris.
Jun '10
Re: What Are You Reading Right Now?
I just got a Kindle sample of the first one -- after reading the blurb I just have to try one. I love the era -- 1930s thru WWII. Thanks for the suggestion.
Jul '12
Re: What Are You Reading Right Now?
Just finished Fifty Shades of Grey trilogy. Go ahead and laugh!
Nov '10
Re: What Are You Reading Right Now?
Larry Koler
I just got a Kindle sample of the first one -- after reading the blurb I just have to try one. I love the era -- 1930s thru WWII. Thanks for the suggestion. · 2 hours ago
I'll be interested in your opinion of it and of his writing. He can, I think, set a scene and create an atmosphere better than any author now writing.
Apr '11
Re: What Are You Reading Right Now?
M1919A4
Larry Koler
I just got a Kindle sample of the first one -- after reading the blurb I just have to try one. I love the era -- 1930s thru WWII. Thanks for the suggestion. · 2 hours ago
I'll be interested in your opinion of it and of his writing. He can, I think, set a scene and create an atmosphere better than any author now writing. · 20 minutes ago
I'm on to Furst, as I've mentioned in some other Ricochet threads. I have natural a taste for spy fiction, but I find that much of it is not that well written, so I don't read it much. But Furst is great. The plot is almost incidental. You read him for the mood, the feel, the scene, as you said.
Jun '10
Re: What Are You Reading Right Now?
M1919A4 and Matt: My gold standard on this is John LeCarre's Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy trilogy (includes Honorable Schoolboy andSmiley's People. So, I will compare it to that and give you my thoughts in a later post or PM.
BTW, I'm reading our own Doug Kimball's book Thicke and Thin and enjoying it immensely. You can get it for $1.00 if you go look at his post the other day.
Nov '10
Re: What Are You Reading Right Now?
I am a fan of le Carre's, too. But, he left me after Smiley's People and "went to preaching".
If you haven't read the antecedent stories to Tinker, Tailor . . . then you might want to try them. George Smiley makes sometimes larger and sometimes smaller appearances in them all.
Call For The Dead and A Murder of Quality begin the set, so far as I hare been able to tell. I was able to find them in paperback. The others, as best I can right now recall them, are The Spy Who Came In From the Cold, A Small Town in Germany, and The Looking Glass War. There may be another, but I cannot now fetch it to mind.
May '10
Re: What Are You Reading Right Now?
I'm finishing up a history of the Church. It's alright.
Then I plan on reading Early One Morning, a story based on the same real events as the game The Saboteur. It's about racecar drivers who worked with British intelligence to sabotage the German occupation of Paris in WWII.
After that, I start re-reading the Wheel of Time fantasy series by Robert Jordan, since the final book will be out soon.
I almost forgot to mention Thomas Sowell's Ethnic America. I'm hoping it will inform me about the evolution of immigration standards in America and how we were able to assimilate (or not) past immigrants.
Edited on August 4, 2012 at 3:47amJun '10
Re: What Are You Reading Right Now?
M1919A4: I am a fan of le Carre's, too. But, he left me afterSmiley's People and "went to preaching".
If you haven't read the antecedent stories toTinker, Tailor . . . then you might want to try them. George Smiley makes sometimes larger and sometimes smaller appearances in them all.
Call For The Deadand A Murder of Quality begin the set, so far as I hare been able to tell. I was able to find them in paperback. The others, as best I can right now recall them, areThe Spy Who Came In From the Cold, A Small Town in Germany,and The Looking Glass War.
Yes, he really went to the left and very anti-American. I loved A Small Town in Germany and The Looking Glass War. But The Spy Who Came in From the Cold not so much. I think it is over-rated and I think it was a very poor choice for me to have to read in high school.
I would put his turning point at The Perfect Spy , it's excellent and so is the BBC series. But it is very nihilistic and thus begins his alienation.