'Last and First Men' by Olaf Stapledon.

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Dave Barry's Year in Review. It's always hilarious. Unfortunately, it's currently only on the Miami Herald website so it's not easy to actually get access. :-(

It's on a few more websites today, so you can probably read it somewhere without problems. Just google it.

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~Sue~

Well I finished "The Cycle of Fire" by Janny Wurts and I've just started on the 1st book of her "Wars of Light and Shadow " series.

Cheers.

I'm posting because I don't want this thread to die.

I'm not reading any books. :-(

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~Sue~

Just starting to read: Ville Mäkipelto, Paavo Huotari - Sensuroitu. Raamatun muutosten vaiettu historia. (Censored. The Silent History of Bible Changes). It is in Finnish and it hasn't been translated to English to my knowledge.

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Yesterday, because I was extremely bored with what was on TV, I picked up my Kindle (actually an iPad with the Kindle app) and started reading a book by an acquaintance of mine.

A Decade Behind Bars: A Prison Memoir by Eric Seiden (available on Amazon)

I don't know what I thought before I started reading, but I believe that I was thinking that I wasn't excited about it and probably wouldn't like it. But I'm several chapters into it and I find I'm enjoying it. If you're at all interested in learning what goes on inside a federal prison, you might enjoy this book. Eric suggests that the book is for adults, only, but he leaves the worst details out.

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~Sue~

"Oak Origins", by Andrew L. Hipp. From ancient acorns to future forests, the story of how oaks evolved and the many ways they shape
our world.

An informative and fascinating read.

I have just finished Minna Silver - 'Sinuhe egyptiläisen maailma - Arkeologin silmin' (The World of Sinuhe, the Egyptian, through the Eyes of an Archaeologist) and started to read Theodore Sturgeon - More Than Human.

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A couple of books I have been reading off and on. Finished with Starman Jones and picked back up with Farmers In The Sky.

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My favorite author has a new book coming out in a few days.* It is Class Clown by Dave Barry.

~Description from the big A~
America’s most beloved wiseass finally tells his life story with all the humor you’d expect from a man who made a career out of making fun of pretty much everything.

How does the son of a Presbyterian minister wind up winning a Pulitzer Prize for writing a wildly inaccurate newspaper column read by millions of people?

In Class Clown, Dave Barry takes us on a hilarious ride, starting with a childhood largely spent throwing rocks for entertainment—there was no internet—and preparing for nuclear war by hiding under a classroom desk. After literally getting elected class clown in high school, he went to college, where, as an English major, he read snippets of great literature when he was not busy playing in a rock band (it was the sixties).

He began his journalism career at a small-town Pennsylvania newspaper where he learned the most important rule of local journalism: never confuse a goose with a duck. His journey then took a detour into the business world, where as a writing consultant he spent years trying, with limited success, to get corporate folks to, for God’s sake, get the point. Somehow from there he wound up as a humor columnist for The Miami Herald, where his boss was a wild man who encouraged him to write about anything that struck him as amusing and to never worry about alienating anyone.

His columns were not popular with everyone: He managed to alienate a vast army of Neil Diamond fans, and the entire state of Indiana. But he also developed a loyal following of readers who alerted him to the threat of exploding toilets, not to mention the fire hazards posed by strawberry pop-tarts and Rollerblade Barbie, which he demonstrated to the nation on the David Letterman show. He led his readers on a crusade against telemarketers that ultimately caused the national telemarketers association to stop answering its own phones because it was getting—irony alert—too many unwanted calls. He has also run for president multiple times, although so far without success.

He became a book author and joined a literary rock band, which was not good at playing music but did once perform with Bruce Springsteen, who sang backup to Dave. As for his literary merits, Dave writes: “I’ll never have the critical acclaim of, say, Marcel Proust. But was Marcel Proust ever on Carson? Did he ever steal a hotel sign for Oprah?”

Class Clown isn’t just a memoir; it’s a vibrant celebration of a life rich with humor, absurdity, joy, and sadness. Dave says the most important wisdom imparted by his Midwestern parents was never to take anything too seriously. This laughter-filled book is proof that he learned that lesson well.
~end of description~

Here is a link to buy it on the big A. If you use this link I may earn a few cents. https://amzn.to/4daYMfI

*Available now for pre-order.

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~Sue~

I'm up to Janny Wurts' "Peril's Gate", but my attempt to get the next 2 books while in Armidale failed.

Cheers.

John Wyndham - The Midwich Cuckoos

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I wonder, do any of you keep a book in the loo to read while you're in there?

I have a book in my bathroom by Dave Barry called Dave Barry Hits Below the Beltway. I read from it whenever I'm in there for a "long visit."

LOL!

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~Sue~

No book in the loo for me. I usually read in bed just before lights out in the evening.

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Currently reading John Brosnan - The Sky Lords.

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I'm now onto book 3 of Hugh Cook's "Chronicles of an Age of Darkness".

But I'm not all happy about the fact that I now have to go to Amazon to get the missing books I want as our local online booksellers are being cut out of the market by them by buying up all of the distribution rights that they can.

Cheers.

I have just finished Arthur C. Clarke's 'EARTHLICHT' and 'The Songs of Distant Earth'. Now I am reading Robert A. Heinlein's 'The Moon is a Harsh Mistress'.

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Just finished Robert A. Heinlein - 'Job: A Comedy of Justice'.

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See:

Chris van Tulleken

Ultra-Processed People


Both eye opening and gut wrenching.

And quite a story of his own family as they grow up in our food revolution...


Enjoy!
Martin

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See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)

I've just watched the documentary that's mentioned on the page you linked. Very alarming indeed.

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