NFR What Are You Reading

Non-fishing related
Properties of Thirst by Marianne Wiggins. Set at the beginning of WWII, it tells about the internment of Japanese-Americans on the west coast and the young Jewish attorney working for the Department of Interior who was tasked with building and administration of the first few years of the Manzanar Internment Camp, set in the Owens Valley at the base of Mt. Whitney. A parallel story of the rancher who owns the 30K acres across the road and his decades long fight with the Los Angeles Water District that diverted the Owens river to supply the LA area with water and consequently decimate a beautiful valley. Beautifully crafted writing that strikes a chord, no matter how you fell about the internment of American citizens. Something there for the epicurean as well. I’ve been to the site several times, all that’s left is a historical marker and the stone gatehouse. There’s a very strong vibe there, a majestic place with a row of 13-14,000 foot mountains right behind.
I am reading it currently and finding it quite moving, especially having have visited Manzanar and the small towns along 395. For another read on the same subject, try Farewell to Manzanar, written by a woman who lived at Manzanar as a child. It will break your heart, the photos alone are worth it.
 

brownheron

corvus ossifragus
Just finished re-reading Children of Time as I decided to pick up books 2 & 3 in the trilogy. Maybe not a great one for people that don't like spiders... but I found the vision of alternate advanced technology based on bio-engineering pretty interesting.

Will finish the other two books then probably start up Central Station that seems to get mixed reviews but I like the premise.

And I need to gird my loins to finally finish House of Leaves which reminds me of my experience with James Joyce back in school. One of the reviewers on Goodreads captured it well with:
"It's like one of those very psychedelic albums from the late sixties, where they do all those funny stereo effects, and all that phasing or whatever it was called - all great fun but you still had to have good songs.
It's about the story of the book about a film about a house, but let's not over complicate things. The film at the centre of it all is called "The Navidson Record", and so is the book about it. And so is the book about the book about the film - STOP doing that!"


I set a 40 book goal for 2023. I beat that in 2022 but we'll see how it goes.
 
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Big Tuna

Steelhead
Just finished "Where the Bluebird Sings to the Lemonade Springs," a collection of essays by Stegner. Now reading Lincoln Highway, On the Spine of Time and Strange New World. You WWII nuts need to read Boys of Winter.
 

Zak

Legend
Forum Supporter
Just finished re-reading Children of Time as I decided to pick up books 2 & 3 in the trilogy. Maybe not a great one for people that don't like spiders... but I found the vision of alternate advanced technology based on bio-engineering pretty interesting.

Will finish the other two books then probably start up Central Station that seems to get mixed reviews but I like the premise.

And I need to gird my loins to finally finish House of Leaves which reminds me of my experience with James Joyce back in school. One of the reviewers on Goodreads captured it well with:
"It's like one of those very psychedelic albums from the late sixties, where they do all those funny stereo effects, and all that phasing or whatever it was called - all great fun but you still had to have good songs.
It's about the story of the book about a film about a house, but let's not over complicate things. The film at the centre of it all is called "The Navidson Record", and so is the book about it. And so is the book about the book about the film - STOP doing that!"


I set a 40 book goal for 2023. I beat that in 2022 but we'll see how it goes.
I'm still waiting on the thrid Children of Time book. I enjoyed the first two.
 

wetline dave

Steelhead
Buzzy in that you like Sanford , Johathan Kellerman will probably be right in your wheel house too. His wife and son are both good writers and kind of in the same style.

Just started his "Bad Love".

Dave
 

Divad

Whitefish
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My favorite find this week, for $6 I couldn’t complain. Been my morning coffee and read wake-up while the dog plays with his kong.
 

Robert Engleheart

Life of the Party
Forum Supporter
What Sandford books have you read? Davenport?
I have read them all, Virgil Flowers is my favorite protagonist but Davenport is excellent also. Latest two have Davenports daughter as an agent.
just read Carl Hiaasen‘s Basket Case; in addition to being a fly fisherman Hiaasen is an excellent investigative reporter and crime novelist. One of his books is about a crook who tries to fix a bass tournament.
 

VAGABOND

Life of the Party
Forum Supporter
Just finished Comanche Empire by Pekka Hamalainen (umlauts over all of the “a”s), a Finnish author who is a Rhodes Professor of American History at Oxford. An in depth study of how the Comanche consolidated their power over the entire southern plains for nearly 200 years by becoming masters of horse culture and political maneuvering. They were originally related to the Northern Cheyenne with an almost exact language and allied with the Utes when they left their original geographic setting of the NW plains and migrated south in multiple groups in the early 18th century. Their eventual empire and economy was designed via the “raiding and trading” philosophy.
Highly mobile, living in rancherias that eventually spread from the Mississippi to the Rockies and the Missouri River south into Coahuila Mexico they drove out the Apache, kept the Spanish, then Mexico at bay by playing them off against the French in the lower Mississippi valley while insulating themselves from the onslaught of the westward expanding Euro-Americans. They were the catalyst that eventually gave birth to what is now Texas by starting to trade with Euro-Americans after the Louisiana Purchase and isolating the Spanish to the south and west of the Rio Grande.
Interestingly, their eventual demise began just prior to Civil War when the southern plains were involved in a 15 year period of drought which drove their herding of horses and their primary protein supply, the Bison, back up into the headwaters of the west>east flowing rivers of the plains where the critical mass of food supply, short plains grass and even the cottonwoods were stripped bare. Micro-Climate change affecting an entire geographic area. By being highly mobile, living in many different rancherias, or groups, they were isolated from and less affected by the small pox and cholera epidemics that raged through the migratory routes of other indigenous peoples. With the end of the Civil War (what was so civil?) and westward expansion of Euro-Americans via the railroads their society was eventually doomed. A rather in depth economic and political study of a people who defined a large part of history for the American west by an author from without, who wasn’t impacted at an early age by pre-conceived ideas on early American history. Not for everyone, but I found it very interesting and informative as it reinforced my believe that the environment defines the people….not vice versa.
 

Buzzy

I prefer to call them strike indicators.
Forum Supporter
Finished Lincoln Highway...not as good as A Gentleman in Moscow, but well worth the read.
Interesting - I loved Lincoln Highway and really enjoyed A Gentleman in Moscow.. at any rate, I hope he has a new book soon.
 

Robert Engleheart

Life of the Party
Forum Supporter
Just finished Comanche Empire by Pekka Hamalainen (umlauts over all of the “a”s), a Finnish author who is a Rhodes Professor of American History at Oxford. An in depth study of how the Comanche consolidated their power over the entire southern plains for nearly 200 years by becoming masters of horse culture and political maneuvering. They were originally related to the Northern Cheyenne with an almost exact language and allied with the Utes when they left their original geographic setting of the NW plains and migrated south in multiple groups in the early 18th century. Their eventual empire and economy was designed via the “raiding and trading” philosophy.
Highly mobile, living in rancherias that eventually spread from the Mississippi to the Rockies and the Missouri River south into Coahuila Mexico they drove out the Apache, kept the Spanish, then Mexico at bay by playing them off against the French in the lower Mississippi valley while insulating themselves from the onslaught of the westward expanding Euro-Americans. They were the catalyst that eventually gave birth to what is now Texas by starting to trade with Euro-Americans after the Louisiana Purchase and isolating the Spanish to the south and west of the Rio Grande.
Interestingly, their eventual demise began just prior to Civil War when the southern plains were involved in a 15 year period of drought which drove their herding of horses and their primary protein supply, the Bison, back up into the headwaters of the west>east flowing rivers of the plains where the critical mass of food supply, short plains grass and even the cottonwoods were stripped bare. Micro-Climate change affecting an entire geographic area. By being highly mobile, living in many different rancherias, or groups, they were isolated from and less affected by the small pox and cholera epidemics that raged through the migratory routes of other indigenous peoples. With the end of the Civil War (what was so civil?) and westward expansion of Euro-Americans via the railroads their society was eventually doomed. A rather in depth economic and political study of a people who defined a large part of history for the American west by an author from without, who wasn’t impacted at an early age by pre-conceived ideas on early American history. Not for everyone, but I found it very interesting and informative as it reinforced my believe that the environment defines the people….not vice versa.
Sounds good, you read this?
worthwhile.
 

Wadin' Boot

Badly tied flies, mediocre content
Forum Supporter
had to stop Hillary Mantel Wolf Hall, too dry, the style was not fun. The tudors were lopping off heads, sleeping around, betraying one another but most of that juicy stuff didn't make the book!

So I am binging Kevin Wilson books instead- Nothing to See Here and Now is Not The Time to Panic

I really enjoyed the last one, it has some Don Delillo meets fanzine vibes to it plus his style is really good, simple
 

Herkileez

Life of the Party
Forum Supporter
"The Outsider", by Fredrick Forsyth. An autobiography about his journey through life as an RAF pilot, then journalist covering international events. Enjoying it so far. His first novel was "Day of the Jackal", an historical fiction about the attempted assassination of Charles de gaulle.
 

kerrys

Ignored Member
Zero Night by Mark Felton. Just started reading and haven’t formed any opinions.
 
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