Hey!! Let's get some action going! What are we reading?

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Next up: Against a Dark Background by Iain M. Banks. Another recent purchase.

Only 3/5 for me. It was OK, but not as good as I'd expected.

Now I'm reading Why We Sleep by Matthew Walker, who is an academic sleep researcher. https://vcresearch.berkeley.edu/faculty/matthew-walker

Fascinating. I had no idea that so much was known about what our brains and body do during sleep.

One sentence summary: Getting eight hours sleep a night is essential for physical and mental health.

[Renate]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

One sentence summary: Getting eight hours sleep a night is essential for physical and mental health.

I'm open to that theory but my body seems opposed.
Posted at 3:30 AM.

[Apache]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Only 3/5 for me. It was OK, but not as good as I'd expected.

Now I'm reading Why We Sleep by Matthew Walker, who is an academic sleep researcher. https://vcresearch.berkeley.edu/faculty/matthew-walker

Fascinating. I had no idea that so much was known about what our brains and body do during sleep.

One sentence summary: Getting eight hours sleep a night is essential for physical and mental health.

My body says it needs only six hours of sleep out of twenty-four. A friend used to think that he was an insomniac. Come to find out he only needed two hours of sleep out of twenty-four. Everyone is different.
Apache

[Renate]

Originally Posted by Renate

Reading Farewell, My Lovely by Raymond Chandler.

So obviously, the next thing to read is Robert & Elizabeth Chandler's translation of Vasily Grossman's Stalingrad.
Oh, dear. Page 1 of 1113.

[drofgnal]

I finished Code Name Sapphire by Pam Jenoff’s Ok book, if at times a bit unbelievable. She writes WWII historical fiction usually centered around some true event. In some cases her books are great, in others they feel a bit contrived. This one was a bit contrived.

Next up is ‘the Andromeda Evolution’, a sequel to ‘the Andromeda Strain’. After that, I’m going to return to Amor Towles and ‘Rules of Civility’.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Now I'm reading Why We Sleep by Matthew Walker, who is an academic sleep researcher. https://vcresearch.berkeley.edu/faculty/matthew-walker

Fascinating. I had no idea that so much was known about what our brains and body do during sleep.

And it remaining good and interesting to the end.

Next I read: A Girl Called Justice by Elly Griffiths. A fun YA detective mystery.

Currently reading: A Cat's Guide to Bonding with Dragons by Chris Behrsin. Looking good so far.

[drofgnal]

Finished ‘The Andromeda Evolution’. It was ok, I didn’t really like the story all that much, and it nearly became a candidate for the ‘did not finish’ thread. But I pushed through. It was well written but I just didn’t get into it all that much. I was going to start the Amor Towles book, ‘Rules of Civility’, but instead I’m starting Kristin Hannah’s ‘The Four Winds’. Towles will be next.

[drofgnal]

The Four Winds was fantastic. I think I liked it better than the Nightingale. I couldn’t put it down. Fortunately, I had a work trip and between sitting in airports and flight time I was able to finish it. I decided to purchase her recent book The Women. Towles will have to wait till after that.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Currently reading: A Cat's Guide to Bonding with Dragons by Chris Behrsin. Looking good so far.

It was OK. I also read the next one, A Cat's Guide to Meddling with Magic. Which was OK-ish, but a bit too much Deus ex Machina for my liking.

Next up was Sharpe's Command by Bernard Cornwell. A recent novel, backfilling a time period in the peninsular war. Good fun.

Then there was A Thousand Ships by Natalie Haynes. Brilliant. The Trojan War and the Odyssey from the perspective of all the women involved.

And now I'm reading The Loving Cup by Winston Graham. The tenth novel in his Cornish Saga about the Poldark family.

[Renate]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Next up was Sharpe's Command by Bernard Cornwell.

I've never read any of the books or seen the television series but I do sing/play John Tams' version of the traditional song, "Over the Hills and Far Away".

[drofgnal]

I finally started The Women by Hannah. I can tell it will be a good one. I slipped one in before it, a hard case crime book by Don Westlake called ‘Call me a Cab’. It was horrible and would have made the DNF thread had I not skimmed quite a bit to get to the predictable ending. I need to be more careful when i buy a 1.99 amazon deal of the day.

[Dr. Drib]

Just finished a beautifully written and lovingly told literary Novella-in-Flash. (It's only about 50 pages long.) It's by Debbi Voisey, titled The 10:25. Only $2.99 from Amazon.

Highly recommended.

[astrangerhere]

I got a new Boox Palma on a whim and have been playing around with it some. This is what I'm reading now over my paper shelves and various devices:

• Classics: A Very Short Introduction by Mary Beard and John Henderson
• The Letters of Emily Dickinsonnewly collected and edited by Cristanne Miller and Domhnall Mitchell
• The Uncanny X-Men Omnibus, Vol. 1 by Chris Claremont and scads of artists and letterers

[fantasyfan]

The Story of English in 100 Words by David Crystal

In his excellent introduction,David Crystal describes the unusual methodology of this book. He states that there are two common ways of approaching a history of the English language.

One can use a straight forward historical method by analysing the sequential development and trends through Old, Middle, and Modern English. Discussions of specific words are limited by demands of space. This gives a good overall picture. He compares it to seeing a forest as a whole but few individual trees. A contrasting method is seen in books of word lists which examine interesting words and phrases. This lets us see the individual trees but gives little idea of the total bounds of the forest.

David Crystal has used both methods. In this book he is combing the two approaches. He has a word list which follows a chronological scheme beginning with the oldest word (roe) and ends with the modern “twittersphere”. Each choice in between has a specific historical relevance to the growth of the language.

The method works perfectly.

The word list includes useful cross references which keep the historical spectrum before us. But one can also dip into the book at random simply for the enjoyable discussions of a specific word.

Anyone interested in both the growth of English and in the history of words in their own right will enjoy this book.