Wednesday Reading Meme
Jan. 30th, 2014 11:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
venetia_sassyWhat I've just finished reading
Non-fiction
The Australian Book Of True Crime by Larry Writer
Really enjoyed this. Solid writing, a good range of cases including quite a few I'd never heard of (and why had I never heard of the Lesbian Vampire Killers?) although I was surprised Ivan Milat of the Backpacker Murders wasn't included.
The Museum of Hoaxes by Alex Boese
According to my Goodreads shelves I had read this before but I couldn't remember it. Entertaining light read covering hoaxes throughout history and looking at the differences in hoaxes from different periods.
One Summer: America 1927 by Bill Bryson
I usually enjoy Bryson's writing and I enjoyed this. America was in a time of amazing change and the way he shows it is well done. The personalities who come through the page all seem so real - Hoover was a very odd man; I kind of wanted to pat Coolidge on the head; I never knew anything about Babe Ruth besides 'baseball player' before this but pro sports is still throwing young guys in the deep end, isn't it?; whatever Charles Lindbergh later became, I felt so sorry for him by the end of the summer! Once a person becomes a 'celebrity', their treatment as a human being seems to go out the window.
Radio, movies, Hollywood, the seed of the Great Depression, the beginning of commercial aviation, Mount Rushmore, Prohibition, Al Capone ... it was quite a summer.
I did find the narrative a bit jumpy and hard to follow at times but my copy was an uncorrected proof and I'm not sure if it was the final text. It did have some obvious spelling and setting errors.
Ghosts of New York by Susan Blackhall
Light, chatty accounts of well-known New York ghosts. A couple were genuinely creepy, a few were intriguing enough to make me want to know more. Mostly for ghost or New York buffs.
13: The Story of the World's Most Popular Superstition by Nathaniel Lachenmeyer
Again, I 'shelved' this as read but I only remember the first chapter. Interesting look at how recent the unlucky 13 superstition really is and Friday the 13th, even more so. In this day and age, it's a little unnerving how widely a superstition can spread via mass media, even replacing local superstitions.
Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife by Mary Roach
I really enjoyed Stiff: the Curious Lives of Human Cadavers but I was mostly 'meh' about this one. Too much of the author trying to be funny, not enough trying to sort out what was going on.
Will Storr Versus The Supernatural by Will Storr
Much better. Again, 'shelved' as read but I only remembered the first chapter. I was fascinated by Storr's journey from total skeptic to possible believer (but still skeptical.) He never seemed to be writing for effect. He was respectful of all those he met along the way, even when they seemed like utter lunatics to me. But I was left queasy by the final story - what happened to Denzel? Whatever was going on, it didn't sound like he'd be safe around his mother or priest.
Lily Dale: The True Story of the Town that Talks to the Dead by Christine Wicker
I wish she'd picked a timeline and stuck to it. Just when I'd be getting into someone's story, she'd abruptly end the chapter and switch to a totally different person or experience. By the time that person's story came around again, it would feel out of the blue. Lily Dale sounds like a fascinating place with a fascinating history but I found this book - which is really more of a memoir - quite muddled. Then again, maybe that suits Lily Dale.
Reread Affluenza by Oliver James. I remembered I'd read this as well as the Clive Hamilton book and got it out to skim again. Ah. That would be why I'd rated it two stars. Decent ideas but wrapped up in a whole lot of arrogant, self-satisfied, pompous ... go for the Clive Hamilton book. Far less annoying and a lot shorter.
What I'm reading now
The Replacement by Brenna Yovanoff
I started this last week but haven't opened it again this week, just buried myself in the non-fiction.
Six Impossible Things Before Breakfast by Lewis Wolpert
Sasquatch: Legend Meets Science by Jeff Meldrum
What I'm reading next
No idea!
Non-fiction
The Australian Book Of True Crime by Larry Writer
Really enjoyed this. Solid writing, a good range of cases including quite a few I'd never heard of (and why had I never heard of the Lesbian Vampire Killers?) although I was surprised Ivan Milat of the Backpacker Murders wasn't included.
The Museum of Hoaxes by Alex Boese
According to my Goodreads shelves I had read this before but I couldn't remember it. Entertaining light read covering hoaxes throughout history and looking at the differences in hoaxes from different periods.
One Summer: America 1927 by Bill Bryson
I usually enjoy Bryson's writing and I enjoyed this. America was in a time of amazing change and the way he shows it is well done. The personalities who come through the page all seem so real - Hoover was a very odd man; I kind of wanted to pat Coolidge on the head; I never knew anything about Babe Ruth besides 'baseball player' before this but pro sports is still throwing young guys in the deep end, isn't it?; whatever Charles Lindbergh later became, I felt so sorry for him by the end of the summer! Once a person becomes a 'celebrity', their treatment as a human being seems to go out the window.
Radio, movies, Hollywood, the seed of the Great Depression, the beginning of commercial aviation, Mount Rushmore, Prohibition, Al Capone ... it was quite a summer.
I did find the narrative a bit jumpy and hard to follow at times but my copy was an uncorrected proof and I'm not sure if it was the final text. It did have some obvious spelling and setting errors.
Ghosts of New York by Susan Blackhall
Light, chatty accounts of well-known New York ghosts. A couple were genuinely creepy, a few were intriguing enough to make me want to know more. Mostly for ghost or New York buffs.
13: The Story of the World's Most Popular Superstition by Nathaniel Lachenmeyer
Again, I 'shelved' this as read but I only remember the first chapter. Interesting look at how recent the unlucky 13 superstition really is and Friday the 13th, even more so. In this day and age, it's a little unnerving how widely a superstition can spread via mass media, even replacing local superstitions.
Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife by Mary Roach
I really enjoyed Stiff: the Curious Lives of Human Cadavers but I was mostly 'meh' about this one. Too much of the author trying to be funny, not enough trying to sort out what was going on.
Will Storr Versus The Supernatural by Will Storr
Much better. Again, 'shelved' as read but I only remembered the first chapter. I was fascinated by Storr's journey from total skeptic to possible believer (but still skeptical.) He never seemed to be writing for effect. He was respectful of all those he met along the way, even when they seemed like utter lunatics to me. But I was left queasy by the final story - what happened to Denzel? Whatever was going on, it didn't sound like he'd be safe around his mother or priest.
Lily Dale: The True Story of the Town that Talks to the Dead by Christine Wicker
I wish she'd picked a timeline and stuck to it. Just when I'd be getting into someone's story, she'd abruptly end the chapter and switch to a totally different person or experience. By the time that person's story came around again, it would feel out of the blue. Lily Dale sounds like a fascinating place with a fascinating history but I found this book - which is really more of a memoir - quite muddled. Then again, maybe that suits Lily Dale.
Reread Affluenza by Oliver James. I remembered I'd read this as well as the Clive Hamilton book and got it out to skim again. Ah. That would be why I'd rated it two stars. Decent ideas but wrapped up in a whole lot of arrogant, self-satisfied, pompous ... go for the Clive Hamilton book. Far less annoying and a lot shorter.
What I'm reading now
The Replacement by Brenna Yovanoff
I started this last week but haven't opened it again this week, just buried myself in the non-fiction.
Six Impossible Things Before Breakfast by Lewis Wolpert
Sasquatch: Legend Meets Science by Jeff Meldrum
What I'm reading next
No idea!
(no subject)
Date: 2014-02-01 03:18 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2014-02-12 02:56 pm (UTC)