OS Book Club Pt II

DJ · 02-08-2021, 04:08 PM

Re: OS Book Club Pt II

Originally posted by Fresh Tendrils

I finished up Ursula K. Le Guin's Left Hand of Darkness over the weekend. Considering it came out in 1969 its core themes and overall premise regarding gender fluidity would still seem ahead of its time if released today. A very solid read and I'll post more detailed thoughts later.

I have been using index cards to mark passages I want to revisit. After completing the book my goal is go back through, write down the bookmarked passages on the index card, and then either keep them in the inner jacket or somewhere close to the bookshelf. I feel like this is a better system than simply bookmarking them with post-it notes and writing them down after reading provides a nice review and refresher.

My goal was to finish that this weekend and start Du Bois' Black Reconstruction in America: 1860 - 1880 so I could read the bulk of it during February for Black History Month. Du Bois expresses his points and thoughts so effortlessly its amazing to read a historical text that reads so easily, keeping the interest forefront, and urging you to discover more. I've only read the first chapter (The Black Worker) and I'm already astounded. Du Bois has already stringed together slavery as an oppression of not only a whole race of people, but also as an oppression and repression of labor itself. Its amazing to me that I've never connected the dots before, but looking back none of my history classes or texts attempted to make the connection - much less make it so damn clear. I would share more thoughts, but that would probably verge on the political side of things regarding enslaved and cheap labor throughout American history as propped up stilts that held and continues to hold our economy up.

Anyway - part of my time reading the chapter was also spent researching modern/current companies that benefitted indirectly and/or directly from the slavery. Its quite centering, really, to realize that we're not far removed from this terrible period of insidious industry. Aetna, Bank of America, and JP Morgan Chase were a few of the names that kept popping up.

Through all of this my To Read list for the year is starting to take shape:

Spoiler

One of the best things I did in college (scary that I'm coming up on my 20-year reunion) was to take several English classes that focused solely on African American literature. Really helped open my mind and eyes to those experiences that up until that time, I knew little or nothing about.

**Fresh Tendrils** · 02-09-2021, 09:46 AM

Re: OS Book Club Pt II

Originally posted by DJ

One of the best things I did in college (scary that I'm coming up on my 20-year reunion) was to take several English classes that focused solely on African American literature. Really helped open my mind and eyes to those experiences that up until that time, I knew little or nothing about.

Anything that you particularly remember as sticking with you? Have you continued to read leisurely and pursue the same exposure?

There are some books I want to re-read or revisit (Souls of Black Folks, Invisible Man) that I had read 2-4 years ago. They have stuck with me out of sheer powerfulness and influence, but I barely remember specific details with either. I guess that happens with any book as you continue to read more and more.

What's fascinating to me so far about Du Bois' history (and so far all I've read is from slavery in America to the stage of Civil War) is that while yes, slavery itself was a horrible, terrible industry, but a lot of the turmoil came down to ensuring Northern white laborers fair wages, living conditions, etc not only in the North, but in expanding into the New West as well. The South was (and most likely still is in many ways) a feudal system of sorts that saw large numbers of its whites either leave altogether or those that stayed mostly lived 'out in the sticks' with no semblance of society or civilization within sight of them. The few poor whites picked up out of dirt dens and log shacks created a caste system of sorts as they were charged with policing and overseeing slaves throughout the South.

Its not hard to draw the line from then to today and see many of our current problems as terribly and deeply rooted in slavery and all its outcomes.

DJ · 02-09-2021, 10:01 AM

Re: OS Book Club Pt II

Originally posted by Fresh Tendrils

Anything that you particularly remember as sticking with you? Have you continued to read leisurely and pursue the same exposure?

There are some books I want to re-read or revisit (Souls of Black Folks, Invisible Man) that I had read 2-4 years ago. They have stuck with me out of sheer powerfulness and influence, but I barely remember specific details with either. I guess that happens with any book as you continue to read more and more.

What's fascinating to me so far about Du Bois' history (and so far all I've read is from slavery in America to the stage of Civil War) is that while yes, slavery itself was a horrible, terrible industry, but a lot of the turmoil came down to ensuring Northern white laborers fair wages, living conditions, etc not only in the North, but in expanding into the New West as well. The South was (and most likely still is in many ways) a feudal system of sorts that saw large numbers of its whites either leave altogether or those that stayed mostly lived 'out in the sticks' with no semblance of society or civilization within sight of them. The few poor whites picked up out of dirt dens and log shacks created a caste system of sorts as they were charged with policing and overseeing slaves throughout the South.

Its not hard to draw the line from then to today and see many of our current problems as terribly and deeply rooted in slavery and all its outcomes.

Invisible Man, Their Eyes Were Watching God, Native Son and Dusk of Dawn are the ones that stuck with me. I've been trying to go back and find supportive text/materials that we read after those books, as they were more of a deep dive into the themes/messages contained in the books.

To be honest my reading habits have largely fallen off, but this is an area I'd like to revisit as I look to get back into reading on a consistent basis.

**Fresh Tendrils** · 02-09-2021, 11:00 AM

Re: OS Book Club Pt II

Depending on the book I'll try to find as much "extra information" as I can. I typically do better with discussions, but have no options or avenue to pursue that apart from this thread here.

Maybe I should start searching for related podcasts and when Covid lifts if any book clubs are meeting up in my area.

**Fresh Tendrils** · 03-30-2021, 09:16 AM

Re: OS Book Club Pt II

Looking to finish up Du Bois' Black Reconstruction by the end of the week. Been in a bit of a funk and not really compelled to read throughout March, but the bug has been coming back the past week or two so looking to capitalize on that. Its a fantastic book. A lot more nuanced look at the Civil War and Reconstruction era than anything I've ever encountered before including a fairly balanced look at Lincoln. Certainly fascinating to see the same arguments and problems of today were present back then.

I have a stack on my dresser and another stack sitting in an Amazon cart, but hoping to dive into most of these within the next 8 months:

Spoiler

Probably a bit overzealous, but what else is new.

**Fresh Tendrils** · 04-20-2021, 12:53 PM

Re: OS Book Club Pt II

I need to go back and write down my marked passages for everything I've read since February, but I've gotten a lot of reading done in the past couple of weeks since I finished up Black Reconstruction.

I've gone through the entire Broken Earth trilogy by N.K. Jemisin and I'm currently reading through her book from last year - The City We Became. Broken Earth was fantastic - rich world and history, fantastic characters that aren't necessarily good or bad - just surviving. There's lore and some hand-holding, but for the most part there's a lot left to the abstract and nothing is absolutely, 100% clearly defined. I can see how some people would not jive with that since some readers like everything explained or defined, but it allows the reader to think and ponder outside of the text which helps give a book some legs. While a couple of perspectives are from younger characters this is decidedly not a young adult series which is what I've been looking for for awhile. I'm not sure what the competition for the Hugo awards were during the three years she won the award consecutively for each of the novels in the series, but it definitely lived up to that hype. Definitely a 4.5/5 star series and with the potential to becoming a favorite on future re-reads. Suffice to say I'm all about the Jemisin train and have added her other completely trilogy (Inheritance Trilogy) and her completed duology (Dreamblood) to my future reading list.

I'm about 1/5 of the way through The City We Became, but I'm inkling closer and closer to absolutely loving it already. So far its much more abstract than Broken Earth and just the premise itself is awesome to think about. The prologue was a true pleasure to read with its urban diction, rhythm and beat. The shift from that to Chapter One was a little disappointing since it shifts into a more storyteller narrative rather than character perspective. Once I got over that change its been clicking with me on all levels. Looking forward to reading the rest and certainly looking forward to wherever she decides to take the series.

I've been playing Ghosts of Tsushima again and have an oncoming itch to scratch in the vein of Japanese lore especially centering around samurai. I have Musashi already, but also have Shogun, The Tokaido Road, The Book of Yokai, and Taiko on my Amazon booklist.

Does anyone have any other books in that category they would recommend? Any series or more recent works?

**dickey1331** · 05-10-2021, 06:42 PM

Re: OS Book Club Pt II

Originally posted by dickey1331

Finished Ten Ways to Destroy the Imagination of Your Child. It was different than what I thought it would be but I liked it and its good to see that side since I have two young kids.

Next book Im reading is The Complete Works of William Shakespeare. This is going to take some time and Ive only read a few of these back in high school. Should be an interesting journey.

It only took about 10 months but I finally finished with all of Shakespeare’s works. I never want to read Shakespeare again lol. It’s not an easy read as English has changed a lot over the last 400 or so years.

My next book is Nanny State by David Harsanyi

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**DieHardYankee26** · 05-10-2021, 07:26 PM

Re: OS Book Club Pt II

What were your favorite ones? Any recommendations or ones that stood out?

**dickey1331** · 05-11-2021, 12:26 AM

Re: OS Book Club Pt II

Originally posted by DieHardYankee26

What were your favorite ones? Any recommendations or ones that stood out?

My favorite comedy was The Two Gentlemen of Verona and this might be my favorite play overall. It was also the 3rd play I read haha. The rest of the comedies were either good or average.

With the histories I wasnt the biggest fan of but I believe the 3 part of Henry the Sixth was my favorite.

The tragedies were pretty good overall. Romeo and Juliet is great. Antony and Cleopatra is really enjoyable. I will say that to me Macbeth is highly overrated. I didn't understand why it is so highly liked.

The Romances were generally good with Pericles, Prince of Tyre being my favorite.

None of the poems really stuck out to me.

I think the biggest issue overall with Shakespeare is that for most of the plays I understand the general story overall but it was the details I didn't get and the jokes that would of been funny or more understood had I lived during that time. This may be an unpopular opinion but you could pick a random book on Amazon and the average person would get more enjoyment out of it than a Shakespeare play. Im not the type of person who would enjoy Shakespeare but it was something I wanted to do. It may be that these stories you are meant to watch instead of read to really get the most enjoyment out of them.

**Fresh Tendrils** · 05-12-2021, 11:39 AM

Re: OS Book Club Pt II

Originally posted by Fresh Tendrils

I have a stack on my dresser and another stack sitting in an Amazon cart, but hoping to dive into most of these within the next 8 months:

Spoiler

I've gotten through a fair amount of that list already in the past month and a half:

Spoiler

I keep meaning to post impressions/reviews, but by the end of the day the last thing I want to see is a computer screen unless I'm running around feudal Japan in Ghost of Tsushima. I have been going back and writing down all the passages I've marked with index cards so that's something I guess.

P. Djeli Clark has a new full length novel out set in his steampunk 1910s Cairo which centers around the Egyptian Ministry of Alchemy, Enchantments, and Supernatural Entities. The Haunting of Tram Car 015 was great, but a rather straight-forward "detective" story. Still, for only being 150 pages its a great weekend type read and highly entertaining. He establishes a fantastic universe in such a short story - I'm looking forward to diving into A Master of Djinn sometime within the next month. A part of me is hoping he expands upon his other "universe" (though, I guess its possible his works all exist in the same world) that he established so well in Ring Shout. That was a gem of a read and packed a whole lot into similar length (180ish pages). Anyway, before diving into his new book I wanted to read his short-story which setup his version of Cairo initially: A Dead Djinn in Cairo and is only available digitally.

**dickey1331** · 05-17-2021, 07:09 PM

OS Book Club Pt II

If you have a kindle with no ads and you update it. Your book cover will show as the Lock Screen. You have to enable it. It’s in the settings.

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**DieHardYankee26** · 05-17-2021, 07:16 PM

Re: OS Book Club Pt II

Originally posted by dickey1331

If you have a kindle with no ads and you update it. Your book cover will show as the Lock Screen. You have to enable it. It’s in the settings.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

Great feature.

**Fresh Tendrils** · 05-26-2021, 10:56 AM

Re: OS Book Club Pt II

I was going through the list of Hugo award winners (fantasy and science fiction award) to bolster my to read list, because obviously I don't think my backlog is quite big enough.

Anyway, I was surprised by how many recent winners I've actually read already and 3 of the nominees for this year I have either read or have on my nightstand to read (The City We Became, Piranesi, and Black Sun). So doing a better job than I thought. Seems like that and the Nebula awards are good sources to browse through. There's some older books I need to go through, though.

Are there any notable awards for other genres to follow?

I've been reading some novellas this year and this may be my new jam. Of course I suppose this depends on the author, but all of P. Djeli Clark's that I have read have been fantastic especially Ring Shout. I'm currently reading his Dead Djinn in Cairo before I jump into his novel A Master of Djinn.

There's some novella series I'm considering for the Summer, but curious to see if anyone here has read them: Murderbot and Singing Hills Cycle.

As far as recent readings I'm now firmly in the NK Jemisin homer camp. I loved the Broken Earth trilogy and The City We Became was fantastic and I loved how she represented New York. The premise itself felt really original and resonated with me. As someone who really has now interest in visiting NYC I felt at home in the book. Really looking forward to the rest of the series.

I read my second Ursula K. Le Guin book of this year this past week - Wizard of Eathsea. Her writing is really superb and just as strong as The Left Hand of Darkness overall. The story itself may be a bit more simplistic and focused smaller, but it was a fantastic read. A wizard earning his stripes. Battling dragons with magic and wit. Fighting his own demons. Just an epic tale for only being two hundred some pages.

Last, but not least Stephen Graham Jones appears to be legit. I read his "horror"inspired The Only Good Indians and was completely enamored the whole book. It follows four friends a decade after some event that haunts each to some degree thereafter. So basically somewhat similar to IT, but not quite an epic length read being only a little over 300 pages. Tons of basketball references which I greatly enjoyed. Lots of native symbolism she representation throughout. I loved the ride.

**kibaxx7** · 05-31-2021, 03:02 PM

Re: OS Book Club Pt II

As a massive fan of Blade Runner, I finally read the book last month and I was surprised with all the things the movie left out.

Now I'm reading Absolutely on Music: Conversations with Seiji Ozawa, a book by Haruki Murakami in which they chat about Beethoven, Mahler, Brahms and also jazz music.

**DieHardYankee26** · 06-12-2021, 02:43 PM

Re: OS Book Club Pt II

Childhood Ends by Arthur C. Clarke

I don't remember what made me pick this one up, I want to say I read it recommended on reddit but I'm honestly not sure. Either way, glad I found it. Classic sci-fi book written in 1953, and when reading it I didn't have a ton of thoughts on it but after sitting with it for a while I think it's really great. The US and Russia are going at it trying to win the Space Race, and instead of one or the other finally getting to the stars, we get a visit from a fleet of ships that just hover over major world capitals. They communicate to us through a UN appointee who basically sends messages back in forth. We call them the Overlords and the one who talks to us directly is named Karellen.

It's split in 3 parts. The first part is the arrival, the first rebellion against the Overlords, and Stormgren (the UN guy) trying to get the overlords to reveal their appearance to us instead of hiding behind a one way mirror that he talks to Karellen through. I don't want to get too far into the plot but one of the cooler things about the overlord backstory is their appearance. This is spoiling everything but I thought it was cool so I had to share:

Spoiler

There's a miniseries that SyFy did a few years ago, 3 episodes. It changes some key things and omits others but it is pretty decent, and I just really love the visual of giant alien ships hovering over cities. Also, Charles Dance (Tywin Lannister) is Karellen so you already know what's up. When I finished the book, I gave the book a 3. When I finished the miniseries and thought about it again, I went back and gave it a 4. Writing all this after having marathoned the Mass Effect trilogy (ME1 is my favorite game ever) and realizing that the Reapers are the ****ing Overlords, I think I'm gonna give it a 5. It has had a long life in my mind outside of the pages.

Heir to the Empire by Timothy Zahn

Wanted to read these books forever and after reading a little about the way they came together (when he wrote them they were essentially canon and licensed by LucasFilm which I did not know) I decided to finally give it a shot. Only the first book in a trilogy, and there's a way to go, but I enjoyed it quite a bit. Thrawn and Mara Jade immediately feel like characters that just belong in the universe, and there's not so much new stuff going on that it feels completely made up. Makes you wonder what would've happened if they would've just let him write the new trilogy. Two things on this: the first is that there's a lot of Star Wars mumbo jumbo. It's cool because it feels like a part of the universe, but there's some insider baseball ship parts that don't get in the way but it kinda goes over your head after a while, at least it did for me. And the second, highly recommend the audiobook. Seriously, the absolute best audiobook I've ever heard. I'm going to listen to the whole series this way. They've got blaster and lightsaber effects, legit SW music, the narrator is doing voices for each character (Lando is hilarious and there's a wookiee with a speech impediment where this guy is getting all the way in his bag), it is fantastic, like listening to a stage play.

On a big sci-fi kick right now, I find the idea of first contact absurdly interesting. How do we react? How do they react? What does it mean? I could be reading these books forever. Starting the Three-Body Problem which is the first in a Chinese trilogy that I've had recommended to me a few times to I'm going to alternate between these and Thrawn trilogy books until I've finished both and then reassess.

OS Book Club Pt II

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