was reading the latest issue of the Native Orchid Conference journal at the laundromat, which has an article that I wrote in it
What are you reading?
- Thread starter tenman
- Start date
Help Support Slippertalk Orchid Forum:
F
FlowerFaerie
Guest
I've just started "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo". Previously, I was reading "Kolymsky Heights" (Lionel Davidson) which was essentially a thriller/spy type novel with a hint of scientific research thrown in for interest.
mormodes
Well-Known Member
Read Zoe Sharp's first in the Charlie Fox series 'Killer Instinct' a plausible hard-as-nails female lead.
Listened to 'Keeper of Lost Causes' by a Scandanavian author whose name I can't pronounce. The protagonist survives a police shoot-out however he becomes a morose embarrassment to have around the station, making all the other cops uneasy. Since he's a hero the Department can't fire the guy so his superiors think up a clever solution to the problem: they'll open Department Q a cold case division and put our hero in charge of it. They isolate him in the basement, give him a budget, a secretary and an unsolvable case to keep him out of their hair until he can retire in peace. They think that's the end of him. oops.
May have to break down and buy Michael Stanley's third Detective Kubu novel set in Botswana because it doesn't seem to be coming to Audible any time soon. Michael Stanley is a writing team of two guys who were in the parks department in Botswana, IIRC. One's Michael and the other's Stanley. Completely different from the First Ladies Detective Agency books although in the first book Detective Kubu does stop by a gas station that looks suspiciously like Speedy Motors. Kubu is the Botswanan name for Hippopotamus and is our overweight hero's nickname. These are police procedurals kinda in the same vein as Tony Hillerman's Jim Chee/Joe Leaphorn books and bring Botswana and the environs to life. Well, at least for me.
Absolutely horribly written are Mark Greason's Gray Man series of which I have only listened to one. Ex-military Seal Team 6 type becomes a lone wolf fixer for hire. The author writes cliche after cliche, changing the cliche just enough that you want to scream at him that changing up a cliche isn't evidence of good writing. It just grates. Nevertheless I'm going to listen to more in the series because the stories are exciting. And if you believe as I do that the story's the thing then you hold your nose at the writing and go with the story. Vince Flynn's first book (the one about the Congressman) was similarly horribly written. But it was self-published. Later he got a book contract and an editor and his writing improved. Flynn's books are filled with BS politics and happily Greason's are not. I think the Gray Man novels have been optioned. Lotsa bang-bang shoot 'em up.
Of the four books the Keeper of Lost causes is the best. The Michael Stanleys are second.
Listened to 'Keeper of Lost Causes' by a Scandanavian author whose name I can't pronounce. The protagonist survives a police shoot-out however he becomes a morose embarrassment to have around the station, making all the other cops uneasy. Since he's a hero the Department can't fire the guy so his superiors think up a clever solution to the problem: they'll open Department Q a cold case division and put our hero in charge of it. They isolate him in the basement, give him a budget, a secretary and an unsolvable case to keep him out of their hair until he can retire in peace. They think that's the end of him. oops.
May have to break down and buy Michael Stanley's third Detective Kubu novel set in Botswana because it doesn't seem to be coming to Audible any time soon. Michael Stanley is a writing team of two guys who were in the parks department in Botswana, IIRC. One's Michael and the other's Stanley. Completely different from the First Ladies Detective Agency books although in the first book Detective Kubu does stop by a gas station that looks suspiciously like Speedy Motors. Kubu is the Botswanan name for Hippopotamus and is our overweight hero's nickname. These are police procedurals kinda in the same vein as Tony Hillerman's Jim Chee/Joe Leaphorn books and bring Botswana and the environs to life. Well, at least for me.
Absolutely horribly written are Mark Greason's Gray Man series of which I have only listened to one. Ex-military Seal Team 6 type becomes a lone wolf fixer for hire. The author writes cliche after cliche, changing the cliche just enough that you want to scream at him that changing up a cliche isn't evidence of good writing. It just grates. Nevertheless I'm going to listen to more in the series because the stories are exciting. And if you believe as I do that the story's the thing then you hold your nose at the writing and go with the story. Vince Flynn's first book (the one about the Congressman) was similarly horribly written. But it was self-published. Later he got a book contract and an editor and his writing improved. Flynn's books are filled with BS politics and happily Greason's are not. I think the Gray Man novels have been optioned. Lotsa bang-bang shoot 'em up.
Of the four books the Keeper of Lost causes is the best. The Michael Stanleys are second.
ohio-guy
Well-Known Member
I picked up a couple books by Sue Hubbell, and have been reading them. She has a very relaxed expository style of writing, and I think she would be an interesting person to know.
The first was a quick read called "Shrinking the Cat" and addresses the modern concern of genetic modification by examining how we as humans have already markedly modified the plants and animals we use before we ever knew about genes. She doesn't mention orchids, but talk about gene modification!)
Now I have also started "A Book of Bees" which is a very readable book that tells about her life as beekeeper and what the profession entails thru out the year.
The first was a quick read called "Shrinking the Cat" and addresses the modern concern of genetic modification by examining how we as humans have already markedly modified the plants and animals we use before we ever knew about genes. She doesn't mention orchids, but talk about gene modification!)
Now I have also started "A Book of Bees" which is a very readable book that tells about her life as beekeeper and what the profession entails thru out the year.
Rocket Men, about the apollo moon trip and things leading up to and after landing on the moon
E
Eric Muehlbauer
Guest
Just started Death in the City of Light, by David King. Nonfiction, about a serial killer in Nazi occupied Paris.
Wendy
Just me!
Just finished the Chaos Walking Trilogy by Patrick Ness, and the Frankenstein Series by Dean Koontz. Currently reading the third book in The Dark Tower series but Stephen King.
C
Clark
Guest
Just read that I am prohibited from entering National Geographic's Photo Contest.
New Jersey, Arizona, Vermont residents can just forget about it.
Quebec residents have an issue also, amongst a couple of other countries.
Next up-
Business Networking AND SEX
(not what you think)
New Jersey, Arizona, Vermont residents can just forget about it.
Quebec residents have an issue also, amongst a couple of other countries.
Next up-
Business Networking AND SEX
(not what you think)
well that stinks....Just read that I am prohibited from entering National Geographic's Photo Contest.
New Jersey, Arizona, Vermont residents can just forget about it.
Quebec residents have an issue also, amongst a couple of other countries.
stay away from those lobsters (or is that book two?)
Yoyo_Jo
Catt's Meow
I just finished Stephen King's 11/22/63. I liked it; kind of thought provoking.
Wendy
Just me!
The Lobstrosities were in book two. I'm finished book three and well into book four now. LOVE, LOVE, LOVE Stephen King's stuff. :clap:
I'll be downloading the Hunger Games trilogy next....after I finish the Dark Tower series. Read the first HG book awhile back and enjoyed it.
I just heard a synopsis about what hunger games is about, and wonders how stories about kids killing each other and laughing about it can be entertaining, and sell so much. It seems like it would just encourage kids (who have very little sense of 'future consequences of present actions') to think about hunting and killing other kids. We have enough school shootings now (no offense, wendy, these stories seem to be popular with many people)
Just finished "Cutting For Stone" by Abraham Verghese. Beautiful story.
Now reading "Three Day Road" by Joseph Boyden.
Now reading "Three Day Road" by Joseph Boyden.
Just finished Belief by Francis Collins. Its a collection of essays and extracts. Some are very good. The sermon by Martin Luther King was excellent. Mother Teresa's piece was beautiful and Anthony Flew's piece was quite profound but I suspect his point would be missed by those not looking for it. I have just started Koopowitz and Hasegawa's Novelty Slipper Orchids. So far so bad for my bank account... I have a new desire to acquire maudiae vinicolors!
Oo! I see there is a new Umberto Eco out: The Prague Cemetery. I really enjoyed Foucault's Pendulum.
Oo! I see there is a new Umberto Eco out: The Prague Cemetery. I really enjoyed Foucault's Pendulum.
Yoyo_Jo
Catt's Meow
Oh man, I hope it's not that grim. I just bought the triology to read...
Wendy
Just me!
No offense taken. I have no idea why this is touted as a childrens' book. It is VERY violent. Being an adult however I find that I did enjoy it. There is no way that I would let my young child read it...or watch the movie though. Good thing my 'child' is 23. He went to see the movie and was disgusted by the adults who took their kids. It is way too much for young minds to comprehend.
mormodes
Well-Known Member
Just started Craig Pittman's 'The Scent of Scandal, Greed, Betrayal and the World's Most Beautiful Orchid' about the Phrag kovachii afffair.
There are extensive appendices which I hope will filli in some of the blanks. For example he only mentions a former Selby Gardens executive who Meg Lowman replaced and mentions some orchid society newsletters without naming them by name... But generally the writing is decent and he moves the story along well enough. Personally I think Eric Hansen is a better writer, but probably Pittman is too used to writing in exposatory style for a newspaper. No matter.
I'm going to have to delve into the appendices, flip back and forth to see if some of my questions and mis-rememberances are answered there.
Kinda funny to see the juxtaposition of the terms "true crime/gardening" on the back cover. Who'd a thunk those two words would ever be linked?
There are extensive appendices which I hope will filli in some of the blanks. For example he only mentions a former Selby Gardens executive who Meg Lowman replaced and mentions some orchid society newsletters without naming them by name... But generally the writing is decent and he moves the story along well enough. Personally I think Eric Hansen is a better writer, but probably Pittman is too used to writing in exposatory style for a newspaper. No matter.
I'm going to have to delve into the appendices, flip back and forth to see if some of my questions and mis-rememberances are answered there.
Kinda funny to see the juxtaposition of the terms "true crime/gardening" on the back cover. Who'd a thunk those two words would ever be linked?
E
Eric Muehlbauer
Guest
I'm looking forward to that book. It's already in my Amazon cart.
Yoyo_Jo
Catt's Meow
Oooo, I must get that one too....
quietaustralian
Well-Known Member
Brown, Dee A; Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee
Just finished reading, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West by Dee Brown, again.
Brown has been accused of bias towards the indigenous people of the United States but his historic accuracy is seldom questioned. I find it hard to believe that some reviewers use the words accurate and bias in the same sentence when discussing this book.
Similar atrocious treatment was dished out to the Australian indigenous people but I'm yet to read an account as griping, sad and well written as Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee.
This book has been firmly positioned at number one of my non fiction canon for many years and would take a extraordinarily good book to move it.
For detailed reviews. http://www.amazon.com/Bury-My-Heart-Wounded-Knee/dp/0805066349
Just finished reading, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West by Dee Brown, again.
Brown has been accused of bias towards the indigenous people of the United States but his historic accuracy is seldom questioned. I find it hard to believe that some reviewers use the words accurate and bias in the same sentence when discussing this book.
Similar atrocious treatment was dished out to the Australian indigenous people but I'm yet to read an account as griping, sad and well written as Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee.
This book has been firmly positioned at number one of my non fiction canon for many years and would take a extraordinarily good book to move it.
For detailed reviews. http://www.amazon.com/Bury-My-Heart-Wounded-Knee/dp/0805066349
