What book are you currently reading / have recently read?

[Dionysos]

I thought we already had a thread like this, but I cannot find it (only a Manga one). Anyway, here we go.

I'm currently reading Helen of Troy: Goddess, Princess, Whore by Bettany Hughes (2005).

This book is about 15 years old now, but I’ve never read it before. It essentially examines the mythical figure of Helen alongside the archaeological remains and records of the Late Bronze Age, and it creatively (and cautiously) imagines what the life of a ‘real’ Helen of Troy might have looked like had she lived within the Mycenaean world, and if there could have been any historicity in the mythical Trojan War at all, and so on. It also examines the development of the figure Helen, how she had been worshipped as a goddess (especially in her home, Sparta), as well as the history of her reception from antiquity through the medieval period and into the modern age.

I’m about two thirds through it at the moment. It is well-researched and written. It is great to see that she has thanked some of my former professors for their aid in preparing the book. I’m not too surprised, as this subject matter is right up their alley, but it is nice for me to see. Of course, they'd already done this before I met them.

 

[greenyxi]

Literally just finished Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton! I love how Hammond, Tim and Lex are portrayed in the book vs the film, with Hammond actually seeming a little bit senile (even though he denies it at one point while eating ice cream as everyone is dying).

I've got to read The Lost World at some point but time for a bit of a break. My sister is buying me Ready Player One for my birthday so that'll be next .

 

[Osmium]

So, I have a few things which I am actively reading (with the real prospect of finishing), although it will definitely take me a while.

I am reading right now, Anthony Abraham Jack's The Privileged Poor: How Elite Colleges Are Failing Disadvantaged Students. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. 2019. This book is part autobiography and part reflection on how underrepresented populations at universities (namely, Ivies) are not fully integrated into the social and economic fabric of the university. The book opens with how, more than any other determinant, class really bleeds through every pore of the university experience and the expectations that we have for the university. The class disparity is explored through the example of travel-abroad, in a US context. While some students are given the opportunity to study-abroad, which is a feat in and of itself, deterrents such as paying for a visa, having access to birth certificates, navigating the costs of plane tickets, application fees, and international insurance are taken for granted. It is such a good read so far and a recommendation from one of my students.

Another work which I am badly making my way through is Achille Mbembe's Necropolitics. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. 2019. This work is an expansion of a 2003 article of the same name. I'm hard-pressed to summarize this work, but in short, Mbembe follows earlier political theorists and philosophers and argues that the state in the 21st century, in a post-colonial context, does not wield sovereign power through its control over life, but rather its ability to threaten and impose death on certain populations (domestic and abroad). I figure I'll be reading this and re-reading this through the summer.

For a treat, I will buy and read Jane Wilson Joyce's translation of Statius' Thebaid, titled Thebaid: Song of Thebes. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press. 2008. This is a translation of a 94 CE Latin epic by the Greco-Roman poet Statius. Super influential through the Renaissance and difficult to find good translations of it. I am almost 100% sure this is the first translation of the work in English by a woman, although, since it is Statius, there is less fanfare than that surrounding Emily Wilson's translations of the Iliad (forthcoming in September 2023, I hear!) and Odyssey.

 

[Frey]

My work in the supermarket still goes hard since the company shut down one of its branches in a state. So my friend invited me and the others to play PS5 at his house to find relief. When I was looking at them playing some games, a book named The tale of the Princess Kaguya came to my notice.

The story, for me, is quite sad. It talks about a woman who can't decide on her life to find happiness. Because it is set in feudal Japan, a time women didn't have the full right to do anything they wanted as men, the main character can't control her life though she is so solid and terrific at communication.

But then I recognized my writing here about Aerith has some details that are quite the same as the main one in the book. Both are members of their royal family: one is the Queen, while the other is the princess. They like to become a part of nature. Kaguya learned and played Monochord while Aerith, which I wrote about, was taught to sing some magic song. Both got difficult ways of serving their family and other people throughout the country. The one thing different about Kaguya is that she didn't know to fight, but the way she wore a long red skirt and stormed out of her house after the night of giving her name celebration made me think that she could know about fighting.

Those things surprised me because I’d never read the book before. While my friends focused on their PS5 games, I only read the book, making them feel hilarious about me. The fact that playing some games and reading some books helped me write a story. The only problem is that my English isn’t so good to be able to write down all.
I’ve rented the book to my home to keep reading. But now I have to leave aside temporarily because my wife angrily induces me to eat something outside with her.

 

[Bambi]

I've been reading a song of ice and fire, on book 5 though ive literally just started it. Book 4 was a bit of a slow one to get through, especially compared its predecessor which i couldn't put down, it wasn't my favourite of the compilation though it did have some fantastic chapters, especially towards the end, i found the latter third of the book much easier to read, i think because i wasn't really invested in the Iron Islands parts of the story deapite really liking Victarions character.
Im not overly keen on whats happening with Brienne either, like the author is just going out of his way at this point to make her as physically unattractive as possible. She deserves better dammit. I absolutely loved the show up until season 8 so i am hoping when the winds of winter is FINALLY released we will see a far better conclusion than the disappointment we got. Though the more i read the more the show and the books separate which gives me a little bit of hope.

 

[shivas]

So I completely despise horror fiction but my friend recommended I read the good old classical Perfume: The Story of a Murderer and it disgusted me right from the first page…. gave me shivers reading it from the murderer’s point of view and I was creeped out the entire time reading it


I’m never reading anything she recommends me again

 

[Six]

Traces of Two Pasts

Ordered this back in October of 2022, and it finally arrived yesterday. Got started on it.

Minor/major spoilers might be present in the following text from pages 1 through 19.

So basically the book starts out a little while after the team has left Midgar. Aerith and Red XIII are now with Cloud, Barret and Tifa. Tifa and Aerith are having conversation and reminiscing on Tifa's childhood. Really starts when Tifa talks about how she'd have tea parties with 3 of her friends "The Four Fiends" they were called. It takes you through a little bit of backstory of Nibelheim and what the village was used for back in the day, how it gained and lost its popularity.

Cute mention of "midnight rendezvous", which as a Cloti I clearly thought was hysterical because CloudxAerith fans tied that to Clerith as it's the music that plays throughout sector 5 and 6, I believe when you're with Aerith. LITTLE DID THEY KNOW! Tifa was reminiscing on how she thought she didn't have feelings for Cloud and how it was just someone she really admired and looked up, to... only to later on PAGE 19 confirm that she DID like him as her tiny self on the water tower, in Nibelheim. "It was that special kind of "like" -- the ones that ties up your heart, making you yearn to be with that person for the rest of your days" - Traces of Two pasts, page 19.


KILL ME.

 

[Osmium]

I have been reading or recently finished a few things that were on the docket for the past year (or four).

I just finished Kyle Chayka's Filterworld: How Algorithms Flattened Culture. New York City, NY: Doubleday. 2024. Chayka is a freelance writer who focuses on culture and increasingly algorithmic impacts on how we develop culture. Chayka's first book, The Longing for Less: Living with Minimalism. New York City, NY: Bloomsbury. 2020, touched on similar themes, such as the ways in which we understand minimalism through instagram feeds, a general aesthetic feel, and how uniformity and neutrality (alleged) are boosted by algorithms. In contrast to his first book, Chayka more directly charts the history of algorithms, how capitalistic aims and a lack of regulation have set the stage for the current environment, and offers solutions for how one can develop a sense of self outside of algorithmic recommendations. At issue in both books is a concern that consumers are increasingly superficial and do little to cultivate a sense of one's own tastes. It took me months to read the book in full, but I had been looking forward to it--I went to the book signing and everything.

As I dig through my back catalog of books, I am finally tackling Barack Obama's third major book and part one of his presidential memoir, A Promised Land. Vol. 1. New York City, NY: Crown. 2020. I bought this book the day it came out while still in graduate school. I had gone to my local bookstore in town at the height of the pandemic and aspired to finish my dissertation that year in between reading Obama's memoir and then a few other difficult fantasy books (I haven't touched the other fantasy books yet). I am struck by Obama's prose and its vivacity, especially in contrast with the driest of all subject matters--a president trying to defend their record of four years. I hope to finish this book soon so that I can finally attempt, maybe for the fifth time, Marlon James' Dark Star Trilogy. If I make my way through at Obama's memoir, then I'll update on that.