OS Book Club Pt II

[kt-od]

Re: OS Book Club Pt II

The Colorado Kid by Stephen King.

Exceptional book. It's a short read but a great story. It's part of the Hard Case Crime series of books. It intrigued me enough to read more of those. So now I"m on to Joyland. It's great so far too.

[Cod]

Re: OS Book Club Pt II

I just finished Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens and all I can say is "WOW!". At first it seemed unrealistic, but as I continued, the book engrossed me (no pun intended) more and more. Definitely recommend this book for anyone looking for a coming of age, family history, and "slow moving" thriller.

[Caulfield]

Re: OS Book Club Pt II

rereading Dune in anticipation of the movie next year. I have a lot on my plate so I wont finish any time soon lol

[JayCutlersCig]

Re: OS Book Club Pt II

Listening to the Audio Book of To Kill a Mockingbird.

Not too long ago, I had to read this for my 9th grade English class. I hated it. Absolutely hated it.

Eight years later, I gave it another shot and I’m so glad I did. It was honestly one of the best books I’ve ever “read”, even if it’s a bit cliché now. The movie is wonderful, too.

Highly, highly, highly recommend you go back and enjoy this masterpiece.


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[DieHardYankee26]

Re: OS Book Club Pt II

Took a class over the summer, the compressed schedule took out any time (or will) I had to read. Hopefully I'll still have time when the semester gets into full swing but could go either way. Anyway...

The Last Wish by Andrzej Sapkowski

Collection of short stories that come first chronologically in the Witcher series of books, 3 is my second favorite game ever (1B really) so there was no way I wasn't going to enjoy this. I can picture and hear Geralt and Dandelion as well as any book characters, and only half because I'd played the games. The books are well written and descriptive, the short stories are as rewarding as the quests in the game were. I've seen online some comments that his short stories are better than the novels but there's another collection of short stories before I get into the novel so no worries there. They should turn more books into games instead of movies.

Spoiler

With shame he realized he felt resentment toward her, resentment that she hadn’t remained a dream, and that he would never forgive himself for it.

He struck decisively, like hundreds of times before, with the center of the blade, and immediately, following the rhythm of the movement, took a fourth step and half a turn. The blade, freed by the half-turn, floated after him, shining, drawing a fan of red droplets in its wake. The streaming raven-black hair floated in the air, floated, floated, floated … The head fell onto the gravel.

I’m looking for general truths. And I’ve found one: lesser evils exist, but we can’t choose them. Only True Evil can force us to such a choice. Whether we like it or not.
“Geralt,” he said suddenly, “but monsters do exist. Maybe not as many as before, maybe they don’t lurk behind every tree in the forest, but they are there. They exist. So how do you account for people inventing ones, then? What’s more, believing in what they invent? Eh, famous witcher? Haven’t you wondered why?” “I have, famous poet. And I know why.” “I’m curious.” “People”—Geralt turned his head—“like to invent monsters and monstrosities. Then they seem less monstrous themselves. When they get blind-drunk, cheat, steal, beat their wives, starve an old woman, when they kill a trapped fox with an axe or riddle the last existing unicorn with arrows, they like to think that the Bane entering cottages at daybreak is more monstrous than they are. They feel better then. They find it easier to live.

The MVP Machine by Ben Lindbergh and Travis Sawchik

"Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in." - Michael Corleone - Silvio Dante

Baseball is just the best man. There's never going to be a better sport for a nerd to get into and this book proves it. My guy Ben Lindbergh and another guy I don't know do a deep dive on Driveline Baseball, the pitcher development facility that used cutting edge camera tech and analytics to push pitchers past what they thought was their ceiling. They also follow certain guys that have trained there and Brian Bannister from the Red Sox who serves as their analytical pitching guru. There was a really cool part on them in particular about how they were monitoring the sliders of Joe Kelly and another pitcher and saw before the postseason that the spin rate was dropping and he was losing the handle on it but his curveball was playing up, so they switched course from fastball-slider to fastball-curveball and he was unhittable all last October. There's just so much going on in the pitcher-hitter duel, to add in all of this data and coaching is intense.

If you're a baseball fan you have to read this. It follows Trevor Bauer, all of our favorite guy, as he tries to turns his self admittedly unathletic body into a pitching machine by focusing on spin rate, working out certain muscle groups with an off the wall warm up routine, going against conventional wisdom by throwing max effort more often than believed safe. Part of the Driveline philosophy is based on deliberate training, which focuses on putting the body through the actual paces it needs to improve by going max effort instead of working around the problem areas trying to keep them from getting hurt. Really fascinating as a fan, talk about the new wave of first time managers essentially taking marching orders from the front office, the importance of "conduits" as coaches who played in the league in the clubhouse that can translate numbers into performance terms, the way and reason teams tell their pitchers to develop certain pitches, etc. Seriously, just a fans dream IMO, can't say enough good things about it.

Spoiler

“You still talk to coaches, ‘Oh, you want a line drive right up the middle. Right off the back of the L-screen,’” Martinez told Travis in 2017. “OK, well that’s a ****ing single.” Martinez began to question why his best swing would result in a “****ing single.”

Many more orders followed; by the spring of 2018, the Astros had bought seventy-five cameras, outfitting every stadium in their system with a number of hard-mounted Edgertronic cameras in addition to equipping evaluators with portable units. (Boddy suspects the next-closest club was the Dodgers, with six.)

Baseball’s last mile is the divide between the front office and the dugout, which stops stats from flowing to the people who can put them to use.

The writer doing a self-test: My hand/bat speed is only 1,344 degrees per second, below the typical pro range of 1,500 to 2,230. (Mariners hitting adviser Edgar Martínez, a newly elected Hall of Famer, clears 3,000 even in his fifties.)

Bannister expects more players to take a cue from PGA pros (and Bauer) and purchase their own sensors, trackers, and cameras to continue their training year-round. Although that could lead to more mastery and greater technological literacy, it may also exacerbate another growing problem with the sport. At the lower levels, baseball is becoming a more expensive undertaking and potentially a more discriminatory one. According to a 2018 report by the Aspen Institute, only 34 percent of children from families earning less than $25,000 played a team sport in 2017, compared to 69 percent from homes earning more than $100,000. Between 2011 and 2017, the participation rates in households earning at least $75,000 increased, while the participation rates in lower-earning households decreased. Organized sports are often an unsupportable expense.

Success breeds complacency. Complacency breeds failure. Only the paranoid survive. —ANDY GROVE, former Intel CEO and semiconductor pioneer

There's so much I want to read after so much time off I have to stop and think for a second. I'm going into The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead and Life Will Be the Death of Me by Chelsea Handle for now. She's the one who basically got me into reading for fun so I've come full circle. I want to read about the mafia, nuclear disasters, finish Harry Potter, start Lord of the Rings, so many books, so little time.

[Cod]

Re: OS Book Club Pt II

I recently tried to get through Tinkers by Paul Harding, but after taking over a week to get through 70-pages, I had to give up for now (I read 30mins-1hr per night for reference).

The book feels like a great story told from the perspective of a dying man; however, Harding's love of details is the books downfall in my opinion. He managed to spend almost 2 pages describing an end table. Again, the book is very thought provoking, which I love. I'm going to have to take a break and start this over in the future.

[DieHardYankee26]

Re: OS Book Club Pt II

Snowden releasing an autobio in September called Permanent Record, my body is ready. Comes out the week before Coates' novel.

Also, Circe being made into a show for HBO Max.

[Fresh Tendrils]

Re: OS Book Club Pt II

HBO also has a series in the works from Nnedi Okorafor based on her book Who Fears Death. George RR Martin will be executive producer.

Speaking of which:

The Binti Trilogy by Nnedi Okorafor

I've been trying to remember to post about this when I'm at home since all my quotes I wrote down is in a notebook on the buffet. Suffice it to say I've been done with it for nearly three weeks and haven't managed before now. Remarkably I still remember much of the book fairly vividly. Part of this is due to me summarizing the individual books while reading them and writing down any remarkable quotes. The rest is certainly due to Okorafor's ability to create a unique, ever-interesting science fiction world.

The Binti Trilogy consists of three books (really they are short stories - the longest book tops out at 150 pages) and an additional short story that is brand new to this collection. The collection follows Binti who is around sixteen years old when the story starts. Her family is part of a desert tribal community on Earth called the Himba. Binti is the first of her people to be accepted to college. The difference here being the university is on another planet called Oomza University. Knowing her family would disapprove of her decision to attend she decides to go without telling anyone.

The trilogy is essentially book-ended by life-altering events. The story changes fairly significantly in the beginning after the first event. Binti is practically an innocent bystander, but her life is forced to change and likewise she has to deal with fallout as a result after two warring factions catch her in the cross-fire so to speak. Much of the trilogy deals with Binti's identity. How it changes and evolves. How it is accepted both by Binti and those around here. Likewise, the majority of the trilogy after the first book also deals with PTSD and the resulting anxiety that lingers.

The story itself is fairly straight-forward and at times I felt like the majority of the book would provide a great basis for a series or movie considering the pacing is similar. For better or for worse. The first book is the most glaring considering how quickly things happen with little to no resistance. It's a great read, but one that doesn't' really hold up to much scrutiny from the reader regarding character logic. The remaining series fixes this and provides some fantastic insight into anxiety and panic attack disorders. It's interesting to read through especially considering this topic isn't really addressed a whole lot in books which seems absurd considering how many feature violent and life-altering events.

In addition to that Binti struggles with accepting her self throughout the trilogy. She is pressured from multiple fronts regarding one aspect of her identity or another - Family, Himba, Khoush (another community close in proximity to Himba, but more modern, urban, and racist), Meduse (faction warring against Khoush), and Herself.

Wrapping all this together is a quasi-futuristic, science fiction setting that encompasses tribal culture and values, mathematics, and the natural world surrounding us. Binti is an adept mathematician. She has been trained to replace her father as the family and community Master Harmonizer. Master Harmonizers are capable of communicating with various beings (including electric current). I think the most basic premise is an em-path. Binti's is based on a mathematical foundation and she uses this foundation for other purposes - most notably to calm herself during panic attacks. She will essentially meditate through solving math equations as a way to center and calm herself. Math and numbers are a major theme throughout the story and it was really refreshing (and original) to experience this mathematical world. It provides Binti's identity the one constant it needs in order to grow.

The world is full of small, original ideas that are very rewarding to read and imagine. Honestly my favorite aspect of the series was the world Okorafor created. It's an organic, rich, and original sci-fi world that feels intelligent and mesmerizes with it's own ideas and intelligence. The story of Binti is a little rushed at times and it's very much a young-adult narrative despite the themes and topics being addressed being very much adult oriented themes. By the end, however, it's a truly empowering, and interesting take on identity in world that is growing smaller and smaller with global communications and interactions.

Spoiler

His anger was rightful, but all that he said was from what he didn’t truly know.

We prefer to explore the universe by traveling inward, as opposed to outward.

Humans. Always performing.

Having curiosity is the only way to learn.

I felt the pain and the glory of growth, was straining and shuddering with it.

Beauty does not need a reason.

The way people on Oomza Uni were so diverse and everyone handled that as if it were normal continued to surprise me. It was so unlike Earth, where wars were fought over and because of differences and most couldn't relate to anyone unless they were similar.

When elephants fight, the grass suffers.

I am currently about half way through The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas. So far it's a great read. Very insightful. It's flaws are the typical young adult pitfalls - some logical inconsistencies, a little bit hand-holding at times, and fairly shallow, straight forward prose. Still, at the very least, it's an eye-opening read and unfortunately one that looks to remain relevant for many years.

Before Binti I read Are Prisons Obsolete? by Angela Davis. If you're wanting to wet your feet in the prison industrial complex without straight up diving into the deep with The New Jim Crow this is probably the best place to start.

For starters the book contains very little statistical analysis. Davis doesn't seem interested into pasting stats and numbers. I was actually reading through about halfway when I noticed this and questioned it. She leaves the numbers on the table because she feels they're too abstract. They take away from the humanity of the situation by focusing on the numbers rather than remembering that these policies, enforcement, and continuing growth of the industry is affecting real people.

The first half of the book is look at the history of prisons and prison punishment from about the start of America onward. The dramatic change from imprisonment becoming the primary form of punishment. The use of penitentiaries, chain-gangs, and convict leasing as a means of policing newly freed slaves. The racist policies and laws that have been enacted and enforced to continue systematically policing future generations. How gender affects reform and policies. How corporations profit from free, handcuffed labor.

Its not exactly all eye-opening stuff, but the book has to be considered one of the primers on the subject of the prison industrial complex. The history and analysis it provides is a fantastic starting point for anyone wanting to become acquainted with this complex before doing the deep dive into other books.

[DieHardYankee26]

Re: OS Book Club Pt II

For ****s sake

https://edition.cnn.com/2019/08/02/opinions/libraries-fight-publishers-over-e-books-west/index.html

[Fresh Tendrils]

Re: OS Book Club Pt II

For ****s sake

https://edition.cnn.com/2019/08/02/o...est/index.html

Certainly a hard minefield to maneuver. I doubt the publishers would see many of those library check-outs/"rentals" turn into purchases.

[DieHardYankee26]

Re: OS Book Club Pt II

I have bought physical copies of books after checking out the digital edition. I will never buy a book I haven't read because it's been made it more difficult for me to find. I'd sooner dust off my peg leg. These greedy publishers can go **** themselves. They've already been paid for the book. This is the book version of Disney trying to squeeze small theaters. It'd be different maybe if B&N was lending e-books, but you're trying to squeeze the library?

It's gotta be a social experiment. They're trying to see how far they can drive us before we go back to the Bay.

[DieHardYankee26]

Re: OS Book Club Pt II

RIP Toni Morrison.

[Fresh Tendrils]

Re: OS Book Club Pt II

RIP Toni Morrison.

Damn man. An icon and legend.

[JayCutlersCig]

Re: OS Book Club Pt II

I actually just finished writing a book I’ve been working on for 3-4 years. It’s the first (of six) drafts that I’m actually proud of.

I used Reedsy to get some feedback and of the 6 professional editors I reached out to, 4 have gotten back to me and said they really liked it. One of them is editing it this week, I think, at a reasonable price.

Sorry about the self-serving horn blowing, but I felt proud of myself.


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[JayCutlersCig]

Re: OS Book Club Pt II

Currently reading Bucky F*cking Dent by David Duchovny...yes, THAT David Duchovny.

It’s a really good, quick read so far with a lot of tongue-in-cheek humor. Highly recommend it, especially for baseball fans or anybody with a dad.


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