What Book Have You Read Recently?

I'm a Jane Austen fan, & there are piles of sequals, prequels, & side stories to her work. Some are great, some are okay, & some are drek.

So it was with apprehension that I bought "Pride & Prejudice & Zombies" by Jane Austen & Seth Grahame-Smith.
Grahame-Smith took Austen's most-loved book & mixed it up with ninjas, people-eating zombies, & a lot of violence. I was surprised by how funny it turned out to be.

So yesterday, I bought another Austen parody "Sense & Sensibility & Sea Monsters" by Jane Austen & Ben H. Winters. I haven't started it yet, but I hope it's as amusing as Grahame-Smith's book was.
 
I just finished Rorty and his Critics edited by Robert Brandom and On The Plurality of Worlds by David Lewis. Lewis' book was a bit of a let-down primarily because most of it was concerned with matters that I wasn't interested in or didn't disagree about. One section was useful because it addressed other approaches to possible worlds and I'll probably read it again sometime.

I strongly disagree with Rorty on a lot of things not the least of which is his replacement of epistemology with politics but have developed a huge amount of respect for the man after finishing this volume. He shows so much respect for his interlocutors even when in very heated debate (albeit his very dry sense of humor can make him sound testier when reduced to sound bites *nods to Bananabrain*) and I almost came to tears at one point at the start of his response to Habermas. In his very last response, to Bjørn Ramberg, he even concedes on some long-held convictions.
 
While anymore I generally just read novels, still once in awhile I dip into spiritually-oriented works. Currently reading the Jungian psychiatrist, Lionel Corbett's, 2007 book, "Psyche and the Sacred: Spirituality Beyond Religion." For anyone wanting to read a good book detailing the Jungian view of spirituality, I'd recommend this book highly. earl
 
Stephen Hawking's A brief history of time. I could almost hear his robotic sounding simulated voice while I was reading it.
 
The Age of Absurdity by Michael Foley.


Foley calls upon a wide-ranging cast - philosophers, psychologists, neuroscientists, Christ, Buddha - in an intelligent and witty investigation into why modern western culture makes it hard to be happy.

s.
 
I read half of The Wind-up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami last year and then left it at my brother's. Feeling up in the air (or down in a well) now. Just found out today Amazon are not going to sell me Benedictus: A Book of Blessings by John O'Donohue. Oh well, I'll just have to try my local bookshop.
 
I read a rather sad short story, The Labyrinth Cat by Urishibara Yuki. It is basically a woman's memories of a cat who lived in an old apartment complex. I highly recommend it, but have at least one handkerchief on hand (I thought it was a tear-jerker/heart-breaker.)

Phyllis Sidhe_Uaine
 
Digger by Ursula Vernon

It's a comic about the (mis)adventures of a wombat that gets sidetracked while digging a tunnel. Her tunnel ends up in a far-away temple to Ganesh. She gets to meet several rather interesting (and "interesting") beings ranging from an oracular slug to vampire gourds to a half-crazy member of a special religious police force.

Oh, and then there are the two demons (one very young, the other quite ancient) and the avatar of Ganesh...

You can find the entire archived comic online, if interested. A little forewarning: it has several heartbreaking sections along with rather hilarious sections.

Phyllis Sidhe_Uaine
 
Rereading Digger and reading Hari no Hana by Inariya Fusanosuke.

The second one is based on the life of Ashiya Douman, a Buddhist priest in the Chowa era. Inariya-sensei usually does WWII-based manga, but this one has really caught my attention with all of the political intrigue and the machinations even within the Buddhist temples.

I have picked up a few interesting epithets from Digger, including one that, according to Ms. Vernon, roughly translates to "Is that my pickax in your gut? And is this your pickax in my eye?" and another that is Digger's battle-cry, "Remember Tunnel Seventeen!"

Phyllis Sidhe_Uaine
 
Doctor Sleep. Its the sequel to The Shining. My cousin-in-law has got some connections thus I he got me an early copy. I can definitely say it holds up.
 
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