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Post by Indiana Jones on Sept 1, 2023 22:59:25 GMT 1
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Post by Merv on Nov 7, 2023 0:57:08 GMT 1
Im about halfway through the 4th Dresden novel called Summer Knight. It introduces us to the fairy courts who are perpetually at war. The Winter Court and the Summer Court. Along with the mob and vampires and possibly soon the White Council of Wizards...this whole world is soon to be at war with one faction or another. It's taking another massive leap in lore. I've struggled to finish only because other hobbies have gotten in the way...namely horror movies in october and Balders Gate and Fortnite. But the reading itch will hit again.
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Post by Merv on Nov 18, 2023 16:35:29 GMT 1
Finished Summer Knight...by Jim Butcher...book 4 of the Dresden Files. This one does a great job expanding this world. It adds elements to the Never Never (which is what our protagonist wizard named Harry calls the world of fairies and other fae like creatures). Two rival courts...the Summer Court and the Winter Court...are preparing for war, some key members get assassinated...some other key members are actually in cahoots to break the cycle and pretty much destroy reality as we know it...and private investigator Harry Dresden is pulled right into the thich of it at the behest of the Winter Queen. I'll say again but these novels really are like a supernatural version of Sherlock Holmes. Toward the end Harry enters the battleground where all manner of beast and creature are fighting on behalf of whichever court they feel beholdened to. It was a really fun sequence where we see all kinds of cool stuff like nightmarish unicorns, goblins, trolls, feral bird women, mounted knights wielding giant swords and pizza loving pixies armed with box knives (steel is a weakness to Fae creatures). It was hard to step away once we entered this battle arena. Very fun story that does a great job at building this world. The first 2 novels felt pretty contained but books 3 and 4 really added to the overall Dresden Files universe here. Theres like 15 of these books total so Im guessing they just keep ramping it up as it goes. Next up...I've been craving some wild west lately so I already downloaded Jim Bridger: Trailblazer of the American West...its an autobiography about Bridger, a famous mountain man, trapper and wilderness explorer in the 19th century America. He was mixed up in all kinds of stuff including being part of the group with Hugh Glass when he gets mauled by the grizzly bear (the revenant) and being a direct ancestor of Lt Aldo Raine from Inglorious Basterds. I had read a novel about Liver Eating Johnson, another famous mountain man in the 1800s, and they wouldve existed together back then for about 50 years so Im kind of curious to hear if they crossed paths. A lot of information about these men is told via word of mouth so historical accuracy on some events is pretty debatable...but I like the stories nontheless.
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Post by Indiana Jones on Nov 19, 2023 17:28:42 GMT 1
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Post by Merv on Dec 29, 2023 4:04:20 GMT 1
Been on a string of historical 'wild west' reads lately...
Jim Bridger: Trailblazer of the American West....Very interesting. The guy was everwhere in the west from being part of the trappers when Hugh Glass was notoriously mauled by a bear and left for dead to running a Fort and guiding caravans through the Rocky Mountains to California. Had three different wives, all Native women and was supposedly one of premier go betweens between whites and the native tribes of the Wyoming/Colorado areas. The only other bio I read that was similar was about Liver Eating Jeremiah Johnson and the Jim Bridger story lacks a bit of the vengeance and violence that the Johnson story had...but that wasn't his fault. Bridger led a much more peaceful life which given the situation and surroundings is honestly kind of miraculous. The trail he primarily used is essentially I-80 in that part of America so its still basically the main trail East to West in that part of the country. I found that really interesting. Overall a pretty informative read.
Billy the Kid: The Endless Ride...I still had a hankerin for some wild west and I figured I'd check out something I know would be a little more violent so I read this Billy the Kid bio. It does spend quite a bit of time with Billy as an actual kid, and even branches out into telling us what becomes of his schoolteacher, brother, stepfather, etc. along the way so it did kind of feel like quite a while until we got to Billy the outlaw. He led a pretty normal petty criminal life of the times until the Lincoln County War. My favorite interaction still is when the Regulators led by Dick Brewer (including Billy) attempted to take into custody Buckshot Roberts, who wanted no part in the war but was supposedly part of the posse that rustled cattle from John Tunstall. Buckshot wouldn't let them take him in because at this point the Regulators had already killed 2 men they had previously captured. The regulators got impatient and opened fire on Buckshot and a gunfight broke out. Buckshot shot Charlie Bowdry in the waist (his belt buckle saved him), shot John Middleton in the chest, shot Doc Scurlock in the ear, blew George Coes finger off, beat Billy the Kid senseless with a rifle and shot Dick Brewer right between the eyes, killing him. The Regulators fled but Buckshot died from a gut shot he had received at the very beginning of the fight. I'm always impressed by this story. Buckshot was a bmf. Overall a good read but I didn't expect so much time to be spent on the fringe characters in Billys youth.
Currently reading Killers of the Flower Moon....it is excellent so far.
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Post by Merv on Dec 31, 2023 17:15:06 GMT 1
2023 End of Year Reads Ranked by how quickly Id want to reread them...
Animal Farm by George Orwell The Feud: The Hatfield and McCoys True Story by Dean King Grave Peril by Jim Butcher The Hunter by Richard Stark Summer Knight by Jim Butcher Bloody Rose by Nicholas Eames Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman The Man With the Getaway Face by Richard Stark The Outfit by Richard Stark 1984 by George Orwell Heart and Steel by Bill Cowher Jim Bridger: Trailblazer of the West by Jerry Enzler Billy the Kid: The Endless Ride by Michael Wallis The Mourner by Richard Stark Danse Macabre by Stephen King
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Post by Merv on Jan 9, 2024 3:48:40 GMT 1
Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI...by David Grann...Back in the early 1920s in Osage County, Oklahoma, USA...there were a series of murders of wealthy Osage people after big oil deposits were discovered beneath their land. The Osage were awarded headrights to their land, which meant they owned the rights to the oil, gas and other minerals found below the property even if they sell the land for other use theyd still be awarded for any oil or other profitable materials found underneath. So they were very wealthy for the time...but that just made them a huge target to be exploited. The novel was a really interesting, and sad and horrible, look at a stretch of history focusing on one county in Oklahoma. The Osage were basically half citizens...they had rights to all this wealth but not the means to spend it because of government restrictions. When they realized they were being targeted they brought it to local authorities attention. Unfortunately just about every local authority was part of the corruption to exploit the Osage in some way so that triggered Hoovers fbi to step in and use this case as a foundation for their justification in being a government agency. Their part in 'solving' the osage murders is part of the reason they became so well funded. The story is tragic and explores some truly evil deeds committed against an entire people, but was a really interesting and well structured read. I definitely recommend it and am looking forward to seeing Martys film.
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Post by Lord Death Man on Jan 9, 2024 5:25:21 GMT 1
Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI...by David Grann...Back in the early 1920s in Osage County, Oklahoma, USA...there were a series of murders of wealthy Osage people after big oil deposits were discovered beneath their land. The Osage were awarded headrights to their land, which meant they owned the rights to the oil, gas and other minerals found below the property even if they sell the land for other use theyd still be awarded for any oil or other profitable materials found underneath. So they were very wealthy for the time...but that just made them a huge target to be exploited. The novel was a really interesting, and sad and horrible, look at a stretch of history focusing on one county in Oklahoma. The Osage were basically half citizens...they had rights to all this wealth but not the means to spend it because of government restrictions. When they realized they were being targeted they brought it to local authorities attention. Unfortunately just about every local authority was part of the corruption to exploit the Osage in some way so that triggered Hoovers fbi to step in and use this case as a foundation for their justification in being a government agency. Their part in 'solving' the osage murders is part of the reason they became so well funded. The story is tragic and explores some truly evil deeds committed against an entire people, but was a really interesting and well structured read. I definitely recommend it and am looking forward to seeing Martys film. Killers of the Flower Moon is easily one of my favorite non-fiction books - if not my all-time favorite.
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Post by Merv on Feb 3, 2024 2:09:33 GMT 1
I binged a few more Dresden novels...Death Masks and Blood Rites.
Both very good. I just love how much the world is expanding with each novel. Theres so many lingering elements from book to book.
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Post by Merv on Feb 21, 2024 14:50:33 GMT 1
Finished The Society of the Snow…honestly, the structure took some getting used to. The majority of the novel includes first hand accounts of the entire ordeal from the 16 survivors. Which was really interesting to see the various perspectives, struggles, and after effects of the plane crash and cannibalism. But every chapter more or less covers the broad outline of events for each person. They all mention the first time they ate, the avalanche, the radio report of the cancelled search and the radio report of the two men who walked out proclaiming help was on the way. There’s a bunch of anecdotes and personal thoughts thrown in for each man. Some really emotional moments throughout naturally. Prob the most emotional one for me was when one of the survivors fathers who had spent the entire time renting airplanes to fly over the mountains to search for his son, was particularly dejected after the plane he was in almost crashed 3 times, was in a taxi and heading back home I think…when the cab driver recognized his accent as Uruguayan and made a comment about how crazy it was about that plane in the mountains. Thinking the cabbie was talking about his own recent close call the father says something like ‘oh that was me. Everything was all right tho’ and the cabbie looked at him in the rear view mirror and clarified that ‘no, those boys in the mountain. The rugby team. Two came walking down the mountain saying there were more alive. It’s all over the radio.’ And the cabbie turned it on and the father heard his sons name as one of the two who walked out, that he was alive and well. The father immediately started crying and kissing the cab driver, elated! It was a really touching moment in a book with a lot of them.
Very good.
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Post by Merv on Mar 10, 2024 22:03:48 GMT 1
Dead Beat by Jim Butcher…book 7 of the Dresden Files has Harry battling against a group of Necromancers all trying to find some evil bad guys old notebooks in order to perform a ritual and become a god! The vamps and the wizards are still at war. The demon coin has really started leaning into Harry’s psyche and all in all Chicago sounds like a pretty crazy place. The climax features Harry riding an undead T. rex through mobs of zombies while a cowardly coroner named Butters plays a drum alongside him. It was pretty amazing!
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Post by Grandmaster on Mar 16, 2024 13:37:10 GMT 1
I ordered Dune. Will read it once I have more time after the Star Trek binging
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