Book Lovers Club
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VR - WOW!!! You have made my morning - and indeed my day. Thanks. I read Frank's essay, then Nichols' essay. I'm going to order the book. I'm copying the links and sending emails to any number of friends who I think will be equally delighted and encouraged by the topic. I love Nichols' fourth point. Maybe I should print it on an index card and carry it in my pocket to present to people when they are 'acting' ignorant.
In any discussion, you have a positive obligation to learn at least enough to make the conversation possible. The University of Google doesn't count. Remember: having a strong opinion about something isn't the same as knowing something.
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minus! WOW---WEEEE!🤓
For a few years now, this topic has interested me....going back to Firestein's book, Ignorance. What I found interesting was his point about putting a bunch of scientists in a room and asking them what they do, they will each explain what it is that they don't know and how they are working at finding out what it is they want to know...I also recall how he mentioned that when finishing a topic before a test, students will ask what will be on the test...which he believes is obviously not learning.....soooo....when books like the Biss and Nichol books come along and they build on this topic of lack of learning and abject rejection of established knowledge, it tickles my brain....I guess it tickles your brain as well...
Coincidentally, yesterday, I had one of those moments where I was questioning a friend's fact....I must admit that I am a very difficult person to be friends with because... it drives me nuts when people just serve up nonsense disguised as facts. Now, understand, these people are not trying to hoodwink, but they are simply ignorant and because they have heard misinformation about a topic for so long, they are certain what they know are facts when in actually, what they know is mere rhetoric or propaganda. With college acceptance letters in the mail, I told my friend that one of the ways to make college more affordable was to get rid of most sports because for most schools, athletics detracts from the financial and educational well being of a university. Well, you would have thought I was a heretic for saying that...my friend just looked at me and without hesitating said I was wrong. Now, I am not an expert in higher education, but I became interested in the topic back in 2000 when my older son was a freshman at Indiana University and there were student riots when basketball coach Bobby Knight was fired. Now, I would like to believe what the pundits tell me about sports being a money maker for universities, BUT that is NOT what the experts say who study the economics of higher education.
Soooooo....I really think Nichol's story is an important one. None of us could be experts at everything, nor should we believe all experts all of the time. But once we look for bodies of evidence and understand where that evidence comesfrom, then it is up to us to have some appreciation for experts AND take responsibility in trying to correct misinformation ....or at least, point out to others where we get our evidence from so others can do their own due dilligence in trying to get good knowledge....
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It's the "responsibility to point out" part that's hard - particularly living in Texas. I often shut my mouth to end arguments.
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minus...i don't get into arguments about other people's opinions....i get into discussions about where their facts came from. As the late, great US Senator Daniel Patrick Moynahan once said...we are entitled to our own opinions, but not our own facts. We need experts to give us the facts and their opinions and we need to have a healthy respect for that process. I just think that what Nichols was pointing out is that this new democracy of information has made it difficult for many of us to formulate opinions because too much info that we think are facts really aren't....
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yes, in perfect agreement.
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Last week I went to listen to C.J. Box read from his new book & answer questions. I really like his Montana game warden series but I haven't read them in order. He mentioned a new author that I'd been reading about, so I picked up that book - The Royal Wulff Murders by Keith McCafferty. This book is also set in Montana and Idaho and the protagonist is a painter and a fisherman and sometime PI. The royal wulff is a particular fly for catching rainbow trout. A body is found in a trout stream with a hook & this fly through his lip. There is a lady sheriff. The terrain is gorgeous. I really enjoyed the book - although there are some characters who are definitely not politically correct when it comes to females. Interesting issues about funding for nature & wildlife & places.
VR - I think it's a book Mr.VR would like.
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Just finished "The Cellist of Sarajevo" by Steven Galloaway (2008). It is a startling book set during a month in the siege of Sarajevo, which lasted from April 1992 to February 1996. An average of 329 shells hit the city each day, with a one day high of 3,777. The story is based on a real cellist. 22 people were killed in front of his building while waiting in a bread line. Each day for 22 days, he put on his tux and took a stool to the spot the bomb landed and played Albinoni's Adagio in G Minor to honor the dead. The story follows four unrelated people living their way though this nightmare, determining that hate will not will win.
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I just read a fascinating book, Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders.
In Tibetan tradition, there is a belief that after death and before one's next birth, when one's consciousness is not connected with a physical body, one experiences a variety of phenomena. This state of existence is referred to as "bardo".
The book starts in 1862 with the death of Abraham Lincoln's beloved 11 year old son, Willie. It mingles historical remembrances of his illness, death, and burial with the strange goings on in the cemetery where he was laid to rest, which the spirit of Willie finds is not so restful. In this place resides the (ghosts? souls?) of individuals who have not made the jump to the hereafter. Some loved life on earth too much and don't want to leave, some are in a purgatory state doing penance for ill deeds done while living, some have unfinished business, and some are afraid to take the next step.....fearful of what awaits them (oblivion? hell?). It is weird, funny, sad, and poignant. I read it as fast as I could, and at the end I said "WOW!".
This surely is not a book everyone will enjoy; but if you liked Spoon River Anthology and/or Our Town and/or Dante's Inferno, then you will love it!
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Ruth, that book sounds so interesting. Was happy to see that my library had it, but the Queue is 62 people long! Oh well,, I'll get it one day!
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Let me do when you do. When it's my turn, I'm going to pick it for my Book Club because I am anxious to discuss it & see what others think of it.
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I just read The Most Beautiful: My Life with Prince by his first wife, Mayte Garcia. It was very sweet, sad, and interesting. It talks a lot about her own life as well as their life together.
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ruth...i read an excerpt of the book and read up on the genetic disorder that their child had...I don't know how you could read the Lincoln book and then the Prince book in such a short period of time...i would have had to given myself a break in between...
Today, I stopped by my library just as a book group was about to meet...so....I went, despite not having read the book, Henna House. Everyone loved the book. The book leader said she spoke with the author and asked about her process of writing. She said she first sees the landscape, then the characters and then the words...and for every one hundred pages that she writes, a single page from the hundred becomes part of the book. Hearing that, I was reminded of Quentin Tarantino who also sees the landscape first, the music second, followed by the possible actor that he wants for the part and then the words....
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Prince was a quick read.
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I'm new to this thread and haven't read through all the posts so I'm not sure if you've read Chris Ewan's Good Thiefs Guide to Amsterdam. This is the first of a series. Each sequel is set in a different city and I recommend reading them in order. I think they get better with each sequel.So happy to find this foru as I love to escape with a great book!
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Welcome butterfly!
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Hi Butterfly!!!
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Hey Ruth,
Hope all is well. Havig a cup of tea and reading new book by James Patterson, Bullseye. So far so good. You feel like and old friend but not in years!
Hugs to all fellow readers
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Butterfly, I just looked at your profile and see that you are a retired teacher. So am I! Aha, that explains a lot
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Yup
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In Iraq, in the book market, books remain in the street at night because Iraqis say: The reader does not steal and the thief does not read.
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lilac...how interesting...
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MinusTwo - I read The Royal Wulff Murders by Keith McCafferty and really enjoyed that author. He has a few more books with the same main character which are all very good in the series. I came across author Pamela Beason who writes about a wild life biologist Summer Westin - but she only wrote 3 books in the series. I enjoy mystery outdoors series describing national parks or wilderness areas. Nevada Barr started to get really twisted in her later books so I stopped reading her. Waiting for another Louise Penny and Elly Griffiths to come out soon.
Recently read Our endless Days by Claire Fuller - I think it was mentioned here. The ending is rather creepy - psychological but I suppose not surprising.
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cp418 - Thanks for the tip about Pamela Beason. I used to love Nevada Barr but haven't read one in awhile. Have you tried C.J.Box? Start with the early ones.
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cp418 - oh, and check out WIlliam Tappley. He is deceased now but I like his books. His mysteries featured a lawyer & fisherman, Brady Coyne, a Maine fishing guide. And check out Phillip Craig. He wrote Martha's Vineyard mysteries about J.W. Jackson, a 30 something ex-Boston cop retired on disability. Unfortunately Craig is deceased too.
In real life, Coyne & Tappley were friends. One led me to the other.
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I got hooked on southwest mysteries after reading Margaret Coel and Tony Hillerman series years ago. I came across author Chinle Miller who writes a "Bud Shumway" series about a retired sheriff who seems unable to retire. R. Allen Chappell wrote a few Navajo mysteries I enjoyed too. I have to look up C J Box as I've come across that name several times. Thanks for the tips - I will certainly look up those authors. I really enjoy that they so accurately describe the locations and parks in their stories - so descriptive it makes you feel like you are there. (Good hiking tips for some of these locations - note to avoid bear areas.)
Has anyone read author Deborah Lawrenson?
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cp417 - CJ Box writes about Joe Pickett, a Wyoming game warden.
Tony Hillerman eventually let me to JA Jance's series about a Joanna Brady, a lady sheriff in AZ. She actually has a couple of different series' now - two with women protagonists in AZ and one about a PI in Seattle. BTW - I only read one book by Hillerman's daughter after he died. I thought it was OK but didn't look for more. Any comments?
I'll look for Miller, Chappell & Lawrenson. What fun. A bunch of "new" authors. Thanks.
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One more - look up Judith Van Gieson. I read her years ago and will go back to reread her mystery stories. I miss these authors after they stop writing....
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Elizabeth Strout's new book, Anything is Possible is getting good press.....
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