Heinlein is such a strange fellow. I found Starship Troopers and The Moon is a harsh Mistress really good reads.
To the point where I remember, that I was once waiting for my gf to get ready for some event. I was standing in the living room and out of boredom, I grabbed some random book from the bookshelf - Starship Troopers - and read maybe the first page. But the book grabbed me instantly, so I put it separately and reread it in the next few days. Usually don’t reread a lot of books, so I found this an interesting insight in how important the first paragraph of a book is.
And while the are a lot of strange ideas in both books, I thoroughly enjoyed them. Like - for every woman on the moon there are ten men. Soooo… women are treated especially well, because they are a rare commodity. Call me pessimist, but I really don’t see it working out this way.
But Stranger in a Strange Land. Oh my…I had to fight to get through it. Funny, that a man the wrote Starship Troopers would also write one of the founding stones of the hippie movement. Heinlein always had a self righteous vein, but in this book he is really going off the rails, if to ask me.
Just finished Maiwa’s Revenge! It was absolutely fantastic and I tore through it in only a few sittings as I stayed up late one night and just could not put it down.
Now I am starting Greenmantle by Richard Hannay. I read the first one a couple years ago titled The Thirty-Nine Steps and it was good, though not quite as exciting as the Allan Quartermain series. My dad says that Greenmantle is quite a bit better though so it will be interesting to see what comes of it.
I think Hitchcock’s The 39 Steps is excellent. A little dated in a few places, but full of marvelous scenes: the drama in the crofter’s house, the handcuffed couple, and hiding in the public meeting, among others. I am also a big fan of Robert Donat, which helps.
Robert A. Heinlein was indeed quite a character (this is a bit of an understatement).
There are at least two books who deal with Heinlein as a person:
Heinlein: Grumbles from the grave, by Virginia Heinlein.
Requiem. Collected works and Tributes to the grand master Robert A. Heinlein, edited by Yoji Kondo.
Both are worthwhile reading if you are hooked on Heinlein.
Well, I finally decided on my next nonfiction book, The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of the World Order by Samuel P. Huntington, which I have begun to read. It was a bestseller in the 1990s and was again prominent six or seven years ago due to its extraordinary prognostications. The publicity attracted my attention because I had met the author. I shared a 25-minute cab ride to the airport with him and his wife around the time the book must have been gestating. He told me that he had been the co-founder and editor of Foreign Policy, which I knew about, but I didn’t know then that he was also a distinguished Harvard professor, one of the most famous political scientists (and I would add historian) in the United States. When he found out about the conference I had just attended, he eagerly peppered me with questions, and we had a very interesting chat. He was a wonderfully gracious and affable man, and the experience was one of the most delightful of my various encounters with famous personalities. The book is already absorbing—but substantively difficult—not light summer reading.
I am reading Geert Mak’s Grote Verwachtingen in Europa 1999-2019. (Great expectations in Europe 1999-2019)
It is a book on Europe’s recent history as observed by Geert Mak when travelling through Europe. A fascinating story on Europe’s social / cultural / political / economical struggle to become one.
I finished “Passenger” by Lisa Lutz a few days ago (can recommend it!), and now I’m reading “Unorthodox” by Deborah Feldman and “Spark Joy” by Marie Kondo (laugh about it if you will, but I feel I really benefit from her methods).
I’ve heard of the Kolyma Stories, but haven’t read them—I’ll have to look into them. Russian literature is the greatest gap in my reading. Ironic because I began my adult reading with a large number of Chekhov short stories at about age 9. My parents told me I was wild about him, though I now remember nothing of the stories.
A few years ago I began filling the gap. I was hugely impressed by Tolstoy’s novelettes, especially “The Death of Ivan Ilyich,” and by Turgenev’s Hunting Sketches. I’ve also read a couple Turngenev plays and a collection of Sologub’s short stories, including the classic “In the Crowd.” As noted in a previous post, I also have high regard for Gorky’s short stories and autobiography. On the science-fiction front, I am a huge fan of the Strugatsky brothers. In addition to their Roadside Picnic, Definitely Maybe and Hard to be a God are not to be missed. And I still consider Zamayatin’s We to be the greatest dystopia ever. Not very much, I’m afraid, but I am looking forward to several volumes at hand.
Oh, yes, and how could I leave out the great One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, which I have read twice…
I am reading “The Light of All That Falls” by James Islington. It is the last book of the trilogy and even though I dislike plots with predestination this series is so masterfully done so far that not only has made it tolerable (because the characters fight against “fate”), but also made it suspenseful because noone in the book is really sure if what they are doing is working or not. Who are the good guys ? Who are the bad guys ? NOONE knows as the series progress and that is very cool.
Add to this:
interesting well made characters
a very robust magic system
A plot with machinations and action with some good battle scenes
An author that actively tries to eventually explain every little “hey, why did this irrational thing happen” moments that most books have. The author eventually gives good reasons for everything, even if those reasons are horrifying or devastating to the characters
If you like fantasy books, I really recommend it
(plus from the second book and on I noticed that there are glossaries at the end, and a summary of the previous books at the beginning which is very good and thoughtful)
I recently read their “Doomed City” book and I found it very good (the translation was also excellently done). I will definitely keep an eye for these titles you mentioned
Strangely I have not read One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich yet, but I did read the Gulag Archipelago. Also a masterpiece. Osip Mandelstam died in a Gulag transit camp.
If you like that sort of thing I can also recommend:
The Accusation by Bandi
The Aquariums of Pyongyang by Kang Chol-hwan
I haven’t gotten around to Stay Alive, My Son by Pin Yathay yet but it is on my todo list, along with Dr Zhivago (Boris Pasternak). I believe the movie “The Killing Fields” was also based on a book, which I haven’t read.
Just last week, I finished Baudolino by Umberto Eco. It’s about a young Piemontese boy who enters the service of Emperor Friedrich Barbarossa. His talent is a vivid imagination, and as long as he tells fables, he fares well, but his fortune changes for the worse when he rctually tells the truth.
Now I read Greek stuff again for my M.A.: Daphnis and Chloe by Longus, True Stories by Lucianus, The Bacchants and Hippolytus by Euripides, Books 6 and 7 of Herodotus’ Histories.
I am reading a book called A Theory of Fun for Game Design. Although probably not the best in describing why we played video games, but from the board game perspective it actually makes more sense.
Oh, that’s good! If you can find his “Dialogues of the dead” (or as I like to call them “deadly dialogues” due to the author’s razor sharp wit ) and his “Timon the Athenean” give them a try, they are amongst the best books ever written (especially Timon is still so relevant that it is hard to believe that it was written almost 2000 years ago )
Yeah, he’s a blast. Did you know the story of an Egyptian magician’s apprentice who tried to fiddle with the spellbook when the master was away? He made the broomsticks walk around and carry water until the place got flooded.
I am in between books at the moment. After a book has been your faithful companion for a few weeks, it feels a bit empty right now.
Don’t know what to read next. Rereading a book, trying something new?
Staring at my bookshelves hoping for inspiration or going to the bookshop?
Serious or easy digestible?
I’ve started “The catcher in the rye” by Salinger. I feel a deep sympathy towards the main character and I like the dirty, direct syle of the narrative. So far it’s quite uneventful, but that’s part of its charm.
Have tried to read it, but was not able to finish it, because the fatality of that complete loser made me nauseous. Found it a very depressing book (as far as I have read it).
) and his “Timon the Athenean” give them a try, they are amongst the best books ever written (especially Timon is still so relevant that it is hard to believe that it was written almost 2000 years ago )