BOOKS: What are you reading?

[BiMeGuy]

"The Tao Te Ching"

 

[Kulindahr]

Ben Bova's five novels about exploring the solar system. I've read three of them before and didn't realize they were part of a series. It's good science and great fiction.

 

[Matt89]

The Witching Hour By Anne Rice

 

[BiMeGuy]

Confucian Analects ,

 

[Latimer]

Beyond the Fields: Slavery at Middleton Place
Barbara Doyle et al.

Quotes:

"For the Anglo-Barbadians, including the two Middleton brothers, who arrived in Charleston to take advantage of the broader opportunities offered by the new colony of Carolina, the pattern of plantation slave labor was well entrenched. It was a pattern the Middletons would adhere to for the next 200 years as they acquired land and developed their South Carolina plantation system.

"In the ensuing years Edward and his descendants, supported by a large slave-labor force, developed the Middleton family plantation network that included...plantations throughout South Carolina, encompassing in all some 63,000 acres with approximately 3,500 slaves.

"As the rice industry grew, so did the need for more laborers to work the rice fields, especially workers experienced in cultivating the grain. That meant the importation of increasing numbers of slaves the western coast of Africa...In this region the inhabitants had been growing and consuming rice for centuries.

"Through inherent survival instincts, courage and resilience, most of the enslaved who did arrive in South Carolina gradually adapted to their unfortunate circumstances...In the process they created the Gullah-Geechee culture in South Carolina and Georgia that evolved from the traditions of West African and Central African coasts. By the time direct importation of slaves from Africa was made illegal in the 19th century, most of the bondsmen sold in Charleston were "country-born" in North America or the Caribbean islands. They, as well as their purchasers, were by then products of a changed, but common environment."

 

[Latimer]

Carolina Gold Rice: The Ebb and Flow History of a Lowcountry Cash Crop
Richard Schulze

"Carolina Gold, the celebrated variety of rice established in the South Carolina Lowcountry, perhaps saved the fledgling colony at the beginning of the eighteenth century and remained integral to the local economy for nearly two hundred years. However, the labor required to produce it encouraged the establishment of slavery, ultimately contributing to the region's economic collapse following the Civil War.

"Richard Schulze, who reintroduced this crop in South Carolina after nearly a century's absence, provides this fascinating inside story of an industry that helped build some of the largest fortunes in America. Drawing on both historical research and personal experience, Schulze reveals the legacy of this once-forgotten Lowcountry icon."

 

[Latimer]

^
I started these books last week while staying at Middleton Place Plantation outside of Charleston, South Carolina.

https://www.middletonplace.org/

 

[patrickj]

 

[Kulindahr]

The World's Religions


Still in the heavy-duty introduction, the level of which promises a much better experience than the brief survey course I took in college long ago.

 

[Latimer]

Wabi-Sabi by Leonard Koren

"Wabi-sabi is a beauty of things imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete. It is a beauty of things modest and humble. It is a beauty of things unconventional."

--from the Introduction

 

[Latimer]

^
Koren's done interesting work.

http://www.leonardkoren.com/

 

[swerve]

I just downloaded The Forest of Forever by Rob Blackwell onto my Kindle. The combination of mystery, fantasy, and suspense is definitely not my genre -- however, the book intrigues me and I'm looking forward to the read.

 

[zoltanspawn]

The World's Religions


Still in the heavy-duty introduction, the level of which promises a much better experience than the brief survey course I took in college long ago.

I think this is a good choice, though I haven't personally read it. Huston Smith is well-regarded and will treat his subjects charitably. Apparently, he practiced Vedanta, Sufism and Zen at different points in his life under the guidance of people in those traditions. Of course, the book was first published in 1958 and there's been a lot of scholarship in the meantime that has simply up-ended some of the notions that were common 50 years ago. So there's that. But as a point of departure from someone who was born outside the traditions he's writing about it's probably reasonable.

I would be interested in watching the show he did with Bill Moyers.

 

[Matt89]

Finished reading Into The Water By Paula Hawkins a few days ago. I enjoyed it but it wasn't as good as her first book The Girl On The Train.

 

[theworldwithout]

Lords and Ladies by Terry Pratchett. Almost done with it though, will be starting the next book in the series soon.

 

[flyingfree]

Barbarian Days/A Surfing Life by William Finnegan (2015)

A worldwide travel guide in search of the best waves.

 

[BiMeGuy]

"The Doctrine of the Mean"

 

[DC00777]

I'm gonna do a little self promo. I had a collection of short stories, titled Safe Sex, published with an indie press a few months ago if anyone's interested. Here's a summary:
Safe Sex is hardly ever safe. A confused drifter crosses paths with a charismatic hustler and ends up at teenager’s house. A grad school dropout struggles to make sense of her life and figure out how to live harmoniously with her boyfriend. A lonely gay man stuck in Kansas begins a sexual and emotional relationship with a straight woman. A high school girl, reeling after the suicide of a former friend she taunted, seeks understanding from her fundamentalist Christian aunt and then a classmate. A gay man struggles with expressing the psychological implications of living with HIV as he cuts himself off from family and friends. A white man—haunted by a past transgression— investigates the murder of a Black trans woman and the lack of police interest, discovering the world isn’t as neat as he believes. This collection—five stories and a novella—explores the intersections of gender, race, orientation, religion, secularism, sex and death, attempting to make sense of what it means to be an American in the 21st century.

The book's available via Amazon or Barnes.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0997694319/ref=dbs_a_w_dp_0997694319

 

[luckynumbah7]

Grimm's Fairytales
Alice's Avdentures in Wonderland

For the first, which addition? I bought a book of them years ago, bit pricey due to the age of it. Was fascinating. Gutenberg is free, but despite the print not being accessible, old books smell the best.

I'm finishing The Scar by China Meiville.

 

[Laboyes]

The Divine Comedy, a couple of English classics with which I got bored, some philosophy books, and Leaves of Grass.