For those who are new ... we discuss books. I list what I'm reading, and people comment with what they're reading. Sometimes I post a special edition on a particular genre or topic.
Just the usual diary this week.
cfk has Bookflurries on Wednesday nights, with links to lots of other diaries about books and reading on daily Kos .
sarahnity has Books by kossacks on Tuesdays.
Just finished
Year's Best Science Fiction by Gardner Dozois. In my opinion, the best of the annual anthologies. I am going through this slowly, but I finally finished it. I don't know why this year's edition took me so long.
Death of a Russian Priest by Stuart Kaminsky, which is one of the Rostnikov novels. These are all good, and this is no exception. These are police procedurals set in present day Soviet Union and (later in the series) Russia. This one is set soon after the breakup, and includes investigation of the murder of a priest.
Now reading
The annotated Alan Turing by Charles Petzold. This is a brilliant idea. Petzold has taken Alan Turing's classic paper on computability and provided extensive, paragraph by paragraph commentary on it, making it comprehensible for a lot more people (like me). This sort of thing should be done more often. Still, it's slow going.
The Pursuit of Glory: Five revolutions that made modern Europe: 1648 - 1815 by Tim Blanning. To quote the NY Times Book Review: "History writing at its glorious best". Blanning is a highly knowledgeable guide to this period, but, more than that, he has a talent for pointing out the odd fact and making it fit into a bigger picture. He makes observations that strike you as obvious - once you've read them - and draws you into the narrative. Anyone with interest in this period should read this book
Ideas: A history of thought and invention from fire to Freud by Peter Watson. We've started this book in Let's Read a Book Together. We have only read the intro and prologue (chapter 1 this week) so you have time to catch up.
Society without God by Phil Zuckerman. How life is lived in two of the least religious countries on Earth: Denmark and Sweden. Just started this book, but it demolishes the argument that societies without God would be hellish, crime-ridden or whatever.
The Fellowship by John Gribbin. About the founding of the Royal Society and the scientific revolution. I am fascinated by this period, but am finding this rather slow going. I'll stick with it though.
I have also started rereading Anathem by Neal Stephenson. An amazing book. Very hard to describe, but I reviewed it here.
And some technical books for work.