What are you reading???

[campbell]

Originally Posted by Maine-iac

Neat. I'll have to look out for "Martin Chuzzlewit" as I haven't read that yet. Nothing like a good insurance scam . . .

The insurance scam is basically a pyramid scheme. But when you hear Montague Tigg (or is it Tigg Montague?) explain his set-up, you wonder why people think Enron, et. al., were so innovative in their fraud.

And skip the section where Young Martin goes to America. Or at least, lightly read the "satirical" bits, and concentrate on the interaction between Martin and Mark Tapley. I can explain the "American adventure" at another time, and let's say it caused bad blood between Dickens and American readers for at least a decade.

[QMO]

Originally Posted by QMO

Just finished The Golden Compass.
I'd read it a few years ago before I knew it had sequels, and couldn't get the sequels from my library at that point.

So, now that I've heard rumors of anti-religiousness I decided to read the whole trilogy.

I didn't find any in The Golden Compass.*
I was kind of bugged that I'd heard of the controversy because it made it harder to immerse myself in the book. I kept looking for allegory and stuff.

*Not counting the common device -- not historically unjustified -- of a religious organization (directly and officially) controlling the government(s) for a large region, and it's natural consequences for the religious organization. But there's no indication (and some counterindication) in the book that all religion is the same in that way.

I just finished the trilogy, and there is definitely a real basis for saying it's anti-religion, but less than a whole lot of mainstream science fiction.

Yes, the author, Philip Pullman, is an atheist. And yes, he chose a church and the god it worshipped to be the great evils in the book. The most evil deeds in the book, by and large, were done with church approval, sanction and authority.

But there are conflicting problems that make it not so clearly anti-religion.

Warning, spoilers in the spoiler tags:

Spoiler:

Yes, the main religion featured in the books is both 1) modeled on the Catholic church and 2) evil. And the being the church worships is both 1) deliberately decietful and self-serving and 2) a mere aged powerless figurehead used by another evil being.

But, there are other religions in the book, and those are generally regarded as benign. It's interesting that the evil religion actually has the most factual base, in the universe of the books.

Also, there are supernatural powers that are assumed "good" by the book (e.g. the Dust that speaks through the alethiometer). Also, in the made-up universe of the books there is conciousness that is separate from bodies and can continue after a physical death.

Still, many of the doctrines, goals, policies and practices he uses for his powerful evil church are so far removed from the doctrines and goals of my church, I have a hard time feeling attacked.

Plus, you know all those rumors that the kids kill God in the book? They're false. Though the kids watch someone that called himself "God" die, it isn't at all their fault.

I wouldn't feel like I have to talk to my 9-year-old about religion before she reads the books.

But, to me, the most disturbing thing about the book is (more spoiler):

Spoiler:

In the last book, the "good guys win" when, and because, a pair of 12-year-olds have sex. Though it isn't explicit, it is pretty unmistakeable. I would talk to my 9-year-old about sex before I let her read the books.

And somehow, I'd never heard this aspect of the books discussed.

[campbell]

I finished off Little Dorrit and Liberal Fascism (two separate books, now). I'm well into Our Mutual Friend, and warily eying The Confusion.

I think I'll keep putting the Baroque Cycle off. It annoys me.

[Maine-iac]

Finished "Home to Holly Springs". It was noticably darker than the Mitford novels, mainly because it deals with Father Tim returning to his hometown and reconciling himself to the people and events of his childhood, which included his very tortured father. Race is more of an issue than in the other books as well, since the setting is Mississippi, and the childhood flashbacks take place in the 1940s, and the racial attitudes of the time are very disturbing to the modern reader. But the character does work through most of his memories and the ending is fundamentally hopeful.
Definitely worth reading.

Next up, a quick "theme" mystery, Laura Child's "Dragonwell Dead". To be followed by Fanny Burney's "Cecilia", if I don't pick up a copy of "Martin Chuzzelwit" first.

[JMO]

I'm reading Skinwalkers by Tony Hillerman. I thought it was a new one, but I was wrong. Then I thought I had read it before, but I was wrong again. I also learned that TH has written a memoir (Seldom Disappointed), and I'm thinking I should get that, too, and read it. One chapter (or part of one) appears as a teaser in the book I'm reading.

[LoneGirl]

Originally Posted by LoneGirl

I just picked up Mistaken Identity, the true story of the two college students, Whitney Cerak and Laura Van Ryne, who were in a deadly van accident here in Indiana and their identities were switched. I watched an interview with the families on Dateline NBC Friday and it was very interesting, so I'm looking forward to reading the book.

I'm almost finished with this book - I don't think I've ever finished a book so quickly (one week)! It's an easy read and very intriguing. If you didn't know any better, you'd think it was fiction. Even though I know the ultimate ending, I still find myself wanting to keep reading to see what happens next. It still blows my mind that it took so long for the one family to realize that the girl in the hospital wasn't theirs. I understand that there was enough resemblance that it was hard to tell when she was hooked up to multiple tubes and machines and braces, etc., but even after the tubes were removed and she was sitting up in a wheelchair and starting to speak, they still didn't know?? I guess if you weren't there, you can't really know what it was like. But I found the story quite fascinating.

[tommie frazier]

finished "the road" by cormac mccarthy. it was good.

now deciding between "the crying of lot 49" (already at home, so that's closer) or "confederacy of dunces". any thoughts?

[JMO]

Stayed up too late last night, finishing Skinwalkers.

By the way, I also finished Shadow of the Giant, and the rest of it wasn't as good as the part I liked. True to form, Card included a couple of chapters that were nothing but teasers for the next book in the series. I may explain what I didn't like in the other thread, in spoilers, but it may take me a while to get around to it.

[Lee Mellon]

Hillerman is great. Right now I'm reading Le Port Des Brumes, by Simenon. It's a Maigret mystery.

[ACCtuary]

Originally Posted by Alto Reed on a Tenor Sax

When you have three kids, two of whom are in diapers, it's surprisingly easy to see your leisure time whiz down the drain before you know what happened.

Given your kid's state of toilet readiness, I would say Whizz is indeed the appropriate word.