What Are You Reading? 3
- Thread starter Tonyblack
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I just finished the Questions Answered trilogy by E.J.Copperman and Jeff Cohen. (The series-label phrase on the book cover is An Aspergers Mystery.) I enjoyed the books. The investigator - who would correctly deny that he is a detective - is a man with Aspergers syndrome who has opened a business called Questions Answered. For a fee, he will research carefully to answer questions. For instance, he investigated wind conditions and (if I recall correctly) the effect of wear on the surface of a baseball in each inning of a game to answer a question about home runs in a particular stadium.
The interest of the stories for me is primarily in the character interactions, though in my opinion the story resolutions were good competent mystery writing.
I have also read Written Off, the first book in the new series by Copperman. Again, it is a solid midlist mystery, which is about a midlist mystery writer who is surprised when her main character calls her to help in an investigation in real life. He says he has never read any of her books, but he has the same name and the same job, and he seems to have appeared out of nowhere the same year she published the first book in her series. it seems that midlist mystery writers are being murdered.
Incidentally, every time I edit this post, the slash marks next to apostrophes and quotemarks add another slash mark. Putting them inside italics does not affect the problem.
The interest of the stories for me is primarily in the character interactions, though in my opinion the story resolutions were good competent mystery writing.
I have also read Written Off, the first book in the new series by Copperman. Again, it is a solid midlist mystery, which is about a midlist mystery writer who is surprised when her main character calls her to help in an investigation in real life. He says he has never read any of her books, but he has the same name and the same job, and he seems to have appeared out of nowhere the same year she published the first book in her series. it seems that midlist mystery writers are being murdered.
Incidentally, every time I edit this post, the slash marks next to apostrophes and quotemarks add another slash mark. Putting them inside italics does not affect the problem.
I’m glad that the author placed an apostrophe in the condition – i.e. Asperger’s Syndrome. It’s named after the Austrian pediatrician Hans Asperger, who diagnosed the condition in 1944.
Incidentally, this is a topic close to my heart because I was diagnosed with it about 20 years ago. I don’t see it as a big deal, and I don’t want to be treated any differently because of it. It’s simply a neurological condition that wires the brain a little differently to most people. People on the Asperger’s spectrum tend to be a little obsessive about subjects that interest them - it could be anything from complex mathematics to fine arts - but can find it difficult to connect with people, because they usually have difficulty picking up on non-verbal cues like facial expressions. Loud noises tend to be disturbing to Aspies; depending on where you are on the Asperger spectrum, this can be anything, ranging from a music club to a loud argument to (for some Aspies) a traffic light.
The good news is that an Aspie who is aware of his condition can learn to work on it and manage it. The other good news is that because of the way that an Aspie’s brain is wired, it is almost impossible for them to act cruelly or callously. On the contrary: most Aspies I’ve met are generous and warm-hearted people, who usually take pains to act honestly and to avoid arguments. Most Aspies also love learning and sharing what they’ve learned.
Despite the shortcomings of their condition, Aspies have flourished: it’s also been theorised that Albert Einstein, Leonardo da Vinci, and Pablo Picasso were somewhere on the Asperger’s spectrum. It’s also estimated that one-in-sixteen people on earth is an Aspie, either diagnosed or un-diagnosed.
(Sorry to go on and on about this, but the subject did come up...)
Incidentally, this is a topic close to my heart because I was diagnosed with it about 20 years ago. I don’t see it as a big deal, and I don’t want to be treated any differently because of it. It’s simply a neurological condition that wires the brain a little differently to most people. People on the Asperger’s spectrum tend to be a little obsessive about subjects that interest them - it could be anything from complex mathematics to fine arts - but can find it difficult to connect with people, because they usually have difficulty picking up on non-verbal cues like facial expressions. Loud noises tend to be disturbing to Aspies; depending on where you are on the Asperger spectrum, this can be anything, ranging from a music club to a loud argument to (for some Aspies) a traffic light.
The good news is that an Aspie who is aware of his condition can learn to work on it and manage it. The other good news is that because of the way that an Aspie’s brain is wired, it is almost impossible for them to act cruelly or callously. On the contrary: most Aspies I’ve met are generous and warm-hearted people, who usually take pains to act honestly and to avoid arguments. Most Aspies also love learning and sharing what they’ve learned.
Despite the shortcomings of their condition, Aspies have flourished: it’s also been theorised that Albert Einstein, Leonardo da Vinci, and Pablo Picasso were somewhere on the Asperger’s spectrum. It’s also estimated that one-in-sixteen people on earth is an Aspie, either diagnosed or un-diagnosed.
(Sorry to go on and on about this, but the subject did come up...)
Yes, the author is well-acquainted with Asperger's. I left out the apostrophes because the slash marks were annoying to me. I thought that problem had been corrected but it still happens with my posts. It doesn't seem to happen in your posts. What are you doing that prevents it?
EDITED TO CORRECT
The problem seems to have been corrected, so I am editing to insert apostrophes, thus making this whole conversation incomprehensible.
EDITED TO CORRECT
The problem seems to have been corrected, so I am editing to insert apostrophes, thus making this whole conversation incomprehensible.
I've been reading quite a few books lately, as anyone who has been bothered to read my reviews thread will note. Amongst the more interesting ones include the Udon Street Fighter comics, a fanbook for the web series Red vs Blue, and the Japanese light novel series Overlord (not to be confused with the video games Rihanna Pratchett has been working on).
Overlord is pretty much like Dot Hack or Sword Art Online, in that a MMORPG where your mind is interfaced with the game is involved. Basically, a player who was part of a guild that created a raid dungeon filled with monsters stays online when the MMORPG is shut down...only to find himself an undead lich in a fantasy world...and the monstrous NPCs are now real. The first book was pretty good, and the first three novels spawned an anime series. Here's the opening (with a fandub of the opening song) for the interested...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PR-FkFwMLco
Actually, the English voice actor for Momonga/Ainz Ooal Gown, Christopher Guererro, would make a pretty damn good Death. He does a lot of work for Team Four Star, often playing these deep-voiced characters (like Cooler and Dr Gero for Dragonball Z Abridged, and Enrico Maxwell for Hellsing Ultimate Abridged, along with being the announcer for Death Battle, and playing Gaara and Bane in their episodes).
Overlord is pretty much like Dot Hack or Sword Art Online, in that a MMORPG where your mind is interfaced with the game is involved. Basically, a player who was part of a guild that created a raid dungeon filled with monsters stays online when the MMORPG is shut down...only to find himself an undead lich in a fantasy world...and the monstrous NPCs are now real. The first book was pretty good, and the first three novels spawned an anime series. Here's the opening (with a fandub of the opening song) for the interested...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PR-FkFwMLco
Actually, the English voice actor for Momonga/Ainz Ooal Gown, Christopher Guererro, would make a pretty damn good Death. He does a lot of work for Team Four Star, often playing these deep-voiced characters (like Cooler and Dr Gero for Dragonball Z Abridged, and Enrico Maxwell for Hellsing Ultimate Abridged, along with being the announcer for Death Battle, and playing Gaara and Bane in their episodes).
I'm reading the new Bernard Cornwell novel, Fools and Mortals. Something of a departure for Bernard as this one doesn't seem to be associated with any historical battles. This one is set in Elizabethan London and tells the story of Shakespeare's writing of A Midsummer's Night Dream. The story is told in first person by a younger brother of Will, who is an actor for Shakespeare's company, who has been doing well playing female roles in the plays. However, as he is getting older, it is getting to be more difficult to pass himself off in these roles. Although he can play secondary roles as a male, he will be taking a step backwards as he'll go from top female actor, to a much lesser position under the established "male" actors. The story also has problems with the queen's men hunting down Catholics as well as any "papist" items or seditious scripts. The puritans were also a problem as they were very much against theatre.
I'm enjoying the book so far. There seems to be a lot of intrigue with Elizabeth supporting the theatre (to a degree) as well as rival theatre companies that are just starting up. Well worth a read if only for the feel of Elizabethan London.
I'm enjoying the book so far. There seems to be a lot of intrigue with Elizabeth supporting the theatre (to a degree) as well as rival theatre companies that are just starting up. Well worth a read if only for the feel of Elizabethan London.
I'm reading the last in the trilogy of Ken MacLeod's The Corporation Wars : Emergence. a brief synopsis (not mine)
<On one level, Emergence, like its predecssors in Ken Macleod's Corporation Wars trilogy, is a member of the generation of science fiction , it is a universe in which near-invulnerable warriors fight endless shoot-em up battles. Where Macleod wins out over the other authors is that the violence is not the actual subject matter, and what he is really doing is writing about contemporary political and economic issues with a dark wit, witness the fact that the central character is called Carlos the Terrorist. Hands up anyone who doesn't immediately have a picture of curly hair and sunglasses.
The novels are set in the distant future, where human consciences have been stored in a virtual habitat orbiting a distant star. They are downloaded into machines to prepare the environment for future colonisation. The situation is confused by the fact that robots sent to assist them have achieved consciousness and are running their own agenda. Also the downloaded humans are split into political factions, the progressive Axle, the facististic Rax, and the controlling Direction. Add in major corporations and their AI lawyers, and the picture emerges that this is, like the supercharged soldiers, a supercharged version of contemporary geopolitics.
An important note is that this is very much the third novel of a trilogy. If you came to this cold without reading its predecessors you'd stand no chance. I have read the others, and given the time between publication, I struggled to keep up with who is who, and with whom their current allegiances lie.>
It's certainly thought provoking reading.
<On one level, Emergence, like its predecssors in Ken Macleod's Corporation Wars trilogy, is a member of the generation of science fiction , it is a universe in which near-invulnerable warriors fight endless shoot-em up battles. Where Macleod wins out over the other authors is that the violence is not the actual subject matter, and what he is really doing is writing about contemporary political and economic issues with a dark wit, witness the fact that the central character is called Carlos the Terrorist. Hands up anyone who doesn't immediately have a picture of curly hair and sunglasses.
The novels are set in the distant future, where human consciences have been stored in a virtual habitat orbiting a distant star. They are downloaded into machines to prepare the environment for future colonisation. The situation is confused by the fact that robots sent to assist them have achieved consciousness and are running their own agenda. Also the downloaded humans are split into political factions, the progressive Axle, the facististic Rax, and the controlling Direction. Add in major corporations and their AI lawyers, and the picture emerges that this is, like the supercharged soldiers, a supercharged version of contemporary geopolitics.
An important note is that this is very much the third novel of a trilogy. If you came to this cold without reading its predecessors you'd stand no chance. I have read the others, and given the time between publication, I struggled to keep up with who is who, and with whom their current allegiances lie.>
It's certainly thought provoking reading.
Speaking of historical battles as background for novels, Frances Hardinge's latest standalone book, A Skinful of Shadows, is set during the English Civil War. It's a spectacularly creepy ghost story, among other things, and - as revealed in the blurb - involves an ancient family and an angry dead bear. It also deals with a teenage girl and her teenage brother who are trying to break free of their family and cultural conditioning in the midst of extreme cultural conflict, in a situation where anybody might suddenly be a traitor.
I've been reading autobiographies & biographies lately, one that I totally loved but is probably not for everyone is called The Trauma Cleaner. Here's the blurb;
Before she was a trauma cleaner, Sandra Pankhurst was many things: husband and father, drag queen, gender reassignment patient, sex worker, small businesswoman, trophy wife. . . But as a little boy, raised in violence and excluded from the family home, she just wanted to belong. Now she believes her clients deserve no less.
A woman who sleeps among garbage she has not put out for forty years. A man who bled quietly to death in his living room. A woman who lives with rats, random debris and terrified delusion. The still life of a home vacated by accidental overdose.
Sarah Krasnostein has watched the extraordinary Sandra Pankhurst bring order and care to these, the living and the dead—and the book she has written is equally extraordinary. Not just the compelling story of a fascinating life among lives of desperation, but an affirmation that, as isolated as we may feel, we are all in this together.
It does sound a bit grim and some parts are but it's also moving, funny, and well, you know how it goes.
Before she was a trauma cleaner, Sandra Pankhurst was many things: husband and father, drag queen, gender reassignment patient, sex worker, small businesswoman, trophy wife. . . But as a little boy, raised in violence and excluded from the family home, she just wanted to belong. Now she believes her clients deserve no less.
A woman who sleeps among garbage she has not put out for forty years. A man who bled quietly to death in his living room. A woman who lives with rats, random debris and terrified delusion. The still life of a home vacated by accidental overdose.
Sarah Krasnostein has watched the extraordinary Sandra Pankhurst bring order and care to these, the living and the dead—and the book she has written is equally extraordinary. Not just the compelling story of a fascinating life among lives of desperation, but an affirmation that, as isolated as we may feel, we are all in this together.
It does sound a bit grim and some parts are but it's also moving, funny, and well, you know how it goes.
I'm a few chapters into Pocket Apocalypse (InCryptid) by Seanan McGuire: synopsis.
Australia, noun: A good place to become endangered.
Alexander Price has survived gorgons, basilisks, and his own family—no small feat, considering that his family includes two telepaths, a reanimated corpse, and a colony of talking, pantheistic mice.
Still, he’s starting to feel like he’s got the hang of things…at least until his girlfriend, Shelby Tanner, shows up, asking pointed questions about werewolves and the state of his passport. From there, it’s just a hop, skip, and a jump to Australia, a continent filled with new challenges, new dangers, and yes, rival cryptozoologists who don’t like their “visiting expert” very much.
Australia is a cryptozoologist’s dream, filled with unique species and unique challenges. Unfortunately, it’s also filled with Shelby’s family, who aren’t delighted by the length of her stay in America. And then there are the werewolves to consider: infected killing machines who would like nothing more than to claim the continent as their own. The continent which currently includes Alex.
Survival is hard enough when you’re on familiar ground. Alex Price is very far from home, but there’s one thing he knows for sure: he’s not going down without a fight.
Australia, noun: A good place to become endangered.
Alexander Price has survived gorgons, basilisks, and his own family—no small feat, considering that his family includes two telepaths, a reanimated corpse, and a colony of talking, pantheistic mice.
Still, he’s starting to feel like he’s got the hang of things…at least until his girlfriend, Shelby Tanner, shows up, asking pointed questions about werewolves and the state of his passport. From there, it’s just a hop, skip, and a jump to Australia, a continent filled with new challenges, new dangers, and yes, rival cryptozoologists who don’t like their “visiting expert” very much.
Australia is a cryptozoologist’s dream, filled with unique species and unique challenges. Unfortunately, it’s also filled with Shelby’s family, who aren’t delighted by the length of her stay in America. And then there are the werewolves to consider: infected killing machines who would like nothing more than to claim the continent as their own. The continent which currently includes Alex.
Survival is hard enough when you’re on familiar ground. Alex Price is very far from home, but there’s one thing he knows for sure: he’s not going down without a fight.
I'm reading The Year 1000: What Life Was Like at the Turn of the First Millennium, An Englishman's World by Robert Lacey. A fascinating read. Other books that I heartily recommend by Robert Lacey are "Great Tales from English History" (volume 1, 2 and 3 - or you can just get them all in the one omnibus.)
"Great Tales" are three very pleasant books, very easy to read, interesting and informative but also humorous. They delve into the history stories that most Brits probably learn early on in school - Alfred and the cakes, Cnut and the waves, and so on - as well as lesser-known stories about kings and queens, dukes and princes, story-tellers and publishers and dictionary-writers and monks and inventors etc., and all the various people who made life in Britain over the years a little better or easier - or at least a bit more interesting. Definitely recommended, regardless of whether you're a historian or just have a casual interest in history. *G*
"Great Tales" are three very pleasant books, very easy to read, interesting and informative but also humorous. They delve into the history stories that most Brits probably learn early on in school - Alfred and the cakes, Cnut and the waves, and so on - as well as lesser-known stories about kings and queens, dukes and princes, story-tellers and publishers and dictionary-writers and monks and inventors etc., and all the various people who made life in Britain over the years a little better or easier - or at least a bit more interesting.
Definitely recommended, regardless of whether you're a historian or just have a casual interest in history. *G*
I'm currently reading The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury. Actually, I'm listening to it on YouTube where someone has uploaded the audiobook. I've discovered that there are a ton of audiobooks uploaded there. I'm able to listen to these books as I'm building my model kits.
I'm enjoying the book. It's one that I've been meaning to read for many years.
I'm enjoying the book. It's one that I've been meaning to read for many years.
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