What Are You Reading 4

[Tonyblack]

I'm currently reading
Smoke Gets in Your Eyes: And Other Lessons from the Crematory by Caitlin Doughty.

She runs the highly successful and interesting YouTube site Ask A Mortician, that looks into death and the death industry. She talks about what happens to a body after it dies throughout history. Well worth a look! This is her first book, but I am intrigued by her third book, titled "Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs?"

 

[Catch-up]

Glad to be of service. It was a brilliant book, though it's also...well, it was derived from comics that were of their time, so parental guidance is recommended when it comes to how certain ethnicities are treated. Overall, though, it's a great book for adults, and I'm sure kids would like it too.

Good to know, thank you! She's 16 now (gah!), so we've had some conversations about dated movies and books.

 

[Ghost]

I'm currently reading
Smoke Gets in Your Eyes: And Other Lessons from the Crematory by Caitlin Doughty.

She runs the highly successful and interesting YouTube site Ask A Mortician, that looks into death and the death industry. She talks about what happens to a body after it dies throughout history. Well worth a look! This is her first book, but I am intrigued by her third book, titled "Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs?"

did you know about her before or after I sent you that youtube video about that hidden Porpoise because those books are on my wishlist as well

 

[Tonyblack]

Lol I had forgotten that you sent me that. No wonder her videos were appearing on my YouTube feed. No, I didn't know about her before that. She's a great communicator and I have learned a huge amount about death. Thanks Ghost.

 

[Ghost]

huh look at me destroying your youtube feed one video at a time

 

[pip]

Been busy reading in lockdown. Worked through loads of Pratchett on Audio book but aside from that recently finished the audiobook of Sandman which was excellent. In standard books currently reading Empire of Ashes by Anthony Ryan to finish out that series and an Anthology called Ignorance is Strength about the fall into Dystopias

 

[Tonyblack]

I'm rereading Nation. Such a well written and overlooked book.

 

[pip]

I only recommended Nation to someone last week. Its a thing of beauty.

 

[=Tamar]

Being in a discussion group, I've been rereading the same book for a month. This month it's These Old Shades, by Georgette Heyer. Not my favorite by a long shot, but I'm finding that my opinion of some of it has changed since the first time I read it.

 

[Tonyblack]

My fellow Bernard Cornwell fans often recommend Georgette Heyer as a good historical novelist. I confess to not having read any of her books.

 

[=Tamar]

People think of Heyer as primarily a writer of Regency romance, but actually most of her books include a dose of farce and qualify as romantic comedy of manners. I've been told that An Infamous Army, her historical novel based on Waterloo is actually recommended to military students because she did such a detailed job of putting her research into describing the battles. (I believe it's available online on one of the read-for-free websites.) Research was much harder in the 1920s and 1930s when she began so her fans forgive her the occasional error, but on the whole her work is reliable.
At the moment my favorite of hers is Cotillion, a later work which involves some self-parody.

 

[Who's Wee Dug]

The latest in Cyberpunk City series: The Blazye Wars it is really good bit of a page turner for me, it's about cyber jackers who break through corporate firewalls to steal data which are patrolled by AI's.

And coming to the end of John Scalzi final book in a trilogy, it has been a good series, first time he a written a trilogy.
The Last Emperox (The Interdependency)

 

[pip]

I finished The Last Emperox last month. Decent series from Scalzi. Not quite as good as The Old Man's War books but still really good

 

[Who's Wee Dug]

Never read them, might give them a go when the current TBR pile goes down a bit more.

 

[pip]

Not sure that can ever happen, the natural form of a TBR is never ending.

 

[Who's Wee Dug]

Never a truer word said, but my excuse is I still keep buying more and manage to make a small dent in the size which means I can squeeze some more on.

 

[pip]

Or keep on buying more shelves also works.

 

[Who's Wee Dug]

I have a seperate book room which is the largest one, it's all floor to ceiling with bookcases around the walls so more shelves is not possible and I'm running out of space.

 

[pip]

We moved three years ago and we bought our new house, and put in a reading room /library, same deal with floor to ceiling shelves. You think it'll be enough but amazing how quick you can fill them. We do have shelves in other rooms but we are near capacity as well. Time for another bigger house

 

[=Tamar]

The trouble with the TBR pile is that, due to social distance rules, I haven't been able to take them to the usual distribution points. Friends of the Library is, i think, closed for the duration, and the commercial thrift shops are overloaded. i hear there is a long line for donating stuff, and a much shorter one for people daring to go buy things. As a result, there is no more space here even when I read some of the pile. The books just get moved to the other pile.