What are you reading right now?

[Badly Drawn Girl]

I'm an odd duck, I read multiple books at the same time.  Well, not really at the same time but you get what what I'm saying.  I WISH I was able to literally read more than one at a time.  Reading is just about my only hobby outside of video games.  I read about 150 books a year.  I love non fiction best but I do read a fair bit of novels.  Currently reading: Theodore Rex by Edmund Morris (part two of his incredible biography on Roosevelt), Up in the Air by Walter Kirn, Darkness Visible (a memoir of madness) by William Styron, A Paradise Built in Hell by Rebecca Solnit (fascinating exploration on altruism in humans stemming directly from catastrophes.) After Dark by Haruki Murakami, The Round House by Louise Erdrich and The Cliff Walk, a job lost and a life found by Don J Snyder.  That's this weeks fare.  And honestly, I have probably ten more books scattered around in various places that I'm also reading.  I could get stuck anywhere and will have a book nearby.  Thank God for thrift stores, I'd never be able to afford my habit.

(And don't go recommending a Kindle to me. I'll politely bite your head off.  If I can't hold the book, turn and smell the pages, I'm not reading it.) 

[Anti-hero]

Any body got any suggestions
On history with like a
Howard Zinn slang pov

[Daughter of Dionysus]

I recently read
"Dear Luke, We Need to Talk Darth"
By John Moe

It's a book of pop culture correspondence

Like there's a letter in there
From Dorothy Gale to Glenda the Good Witch
She tells Glenda to fuck off
..."If I knew how to get home all along why in the hell did you make me go thru all this bullshit?..."
She says something in the letter about avoiding a narcotic overdose in the poppy fields and doesn't Glenda know that's what they make heroin from?

It's funny
And you can read most of it online

[smalls]

I've heard a little about Marc Lewis, isn't he the one who talks about the physical changes to the brain of long term addicts being irrelevant because of brain plasticity? I am always a bit wary of the disease/not a disease conflict because generally speaking the "it's not a disease" camp tend to reduce addiction down to it just being a lack of ~willpower~ on the part of the addict, which is both unhelpful, untrue and plays into the morality aspects of shaming and persecuting addicts.

I'm not sure what stance Mr Lewis takes wrt the complex nature of addiction, but I am always leery of ex addicts going on about their addiction and how if they can beat it then anyone should be able to.

What is your impression of his attitude towards addiction/addicts?


"Meanwhile, in the Future" sounds very cool- I really should try getting into podcasts but I have a hard time sitting still listening to things (as much as I love music)- it's like I need a visual connection too (that's why I have never even tried listening to an audio book, IDGI if you can read, why would you listen instead?).

I did listen to an episode or two of Welcome to Nightvale but, again, I kinda needed visuals to make the connection, although the story telling was excellent- even just watching the person speak is enough to keep me engaged but words simply coming out of my speakers with nothing else...IDK, I just struggle with it holding my attention.
Which is a shame because I'm obviously missing out on some interesting stuff.

Thanks for the suggestions, I think I will have to give podcasts a second chance

Hey skramamme, sorry it's taken so long for me to reply. I really wanted to finish the book so I could properly answer your questions, but I'm not done yet and I think I'll have to read it once more for it to all really sink in. I'm no scientist, so while I understand it as I'm reading it, it's hard for me to explain it.

From what I can tell he prefers to call addiction "motivated repetition that gives rise to deep learning," but that doesn't make for a very good soundbite.

From the last chapter: "Because the onset of addiction must include one or more phases of accelerated learning, but can also simmer for long periods, I've settled on the phrase deep learning. This is meant to describe the overall profile of addictive learning, including periods of rapid change, periods of coasting, and temporary remissions (in medical parlance). This profile resembles a standard learning curve. It's just steeper. Desire is at the top of the list when it comes to emotional states that propel learning. But we have to remember that negative emotions, like anxiety and shame, fuel synaptic configurations as well. [...] So addiction is not fundamentally different from other unfortunate directions in personality development: a self-reinforcing habit based on intense emotions, encountered repeatedly. [...] Much of this rewiring is the product of dopamine uptake in response to highly compelling goals, creating an ever-tightening feedback loop between desire and acquisition, wanting and getting. [...] It's a habit that grows and self perpetuates relatively quickly, when we repeatedly pursue the same highly attractive goal. Or, in a phrase, motivated repetition that gives way to deep learning."

He is big on the concept of addiction as just a stage of development and one can develop out of it (not without effort of course). Actually I think the numbers point to most folks aging out of addiction, or phasing out of it on their own without direct treatment. <<I read that somewhere else - Carl Hart maybe? - not in this book.

I totally agree that disease/not a disease is a slippery slope. It's too early in the public conversation to start changing the terminology probably. And it's fine with me if people want to call it a disease if it lifts stigma and gets more funding into maintenance treatment, mental health, and out of law enforcement. I do cringe a bit when he uses the word "habit" because most people will take that to mean a habit like biting your nails, when he means it more in the way of how your fork finds your mouth as you eat is a habit - you don't even think about it.

And I know what you mean about people who clean themselves up and then act like they've got all the answers. Ugh. In his books the narrative part is more of a framing device as a way to explain the neuroscience and biology of what is happening when drugs are taken/pursued.

And as for podcasts, oh man there are so many good ones out there. Some are easier to digest than others. Nightvale took a lot of focus for me too so I didn't really get that deep into it. But others are good for listening while walking, doing the dishes, knitting (if you're into that). Of course not all at the same time. 

[DeadCat]

Any body got any suggestions
On history with like a
Howard Zinn slang pov

You might like "Why America Failed" by Morris Berman. It's actually one of 3 books the other 2 being "Dark Ages America" and "The Twilight of American Culture"  all dissect American culture and critique the American mythology very well.

Anything written by Christopher Hedges.


At the moment, I  am about halfway through Johann Hari's "Chasing the Scream" about the history and possible end of the "war on drugs." I had read excerpts a while ago and finally started it in earnest today. It is very good.

[Zoops]

Going through a very slow re-read of "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" by Mark Twain. Whenever I can't sleep I knock out a few pages. This story is not for all: flippant use of the full-on "N word" throughout. But it was the times...

But for the time, Mr. Clemens was very progressive, having a Black man as a main character "ol' Ni**er Jim," Huck's best friend.

They have all sorts of adventures going down the Mississippi river from Illinois on a large (stolen) river raft, with a little wigwam built on it.

[SPARKSFLY666]

Any body got any suggestions
On history with like a
Howard Zinn slang pov

Idk I'd youd be into checking into "alternate history" genre books, I like you had an appreciation for historical reads, and just this past year started to read more fiction works, and have really enjoyed THE MAN IN THE HIGH CASTLE by Phillip K Dick. And the Sprawl trilligy NEUROMANCER, COUNT ZERO, MONA LISA OVERDRIVE by William Gibson (I'm reading these now, Artificial intelligence based) they're AWSOME and I'm not into much sci-Fi.

[SPARKSFLY666]

BEHOLD A PALE HORSE by William Cooper
MARCHING POWDER by Rusty Young
SHANTARM / THE MOUNTAIN SHADOW by Gregory David Roberts

Are all also great reads.

[Griffin]

Has anyone read Apaches by Larenza Carcaterra? It is pretty good they should make into a movie he wrote Sleepers as well the movie they made with Kevin Bacon about a few kids who were sexually abused in a juvenile detention facility and grow up and try to get revenge. I read Apaches while I was in jail that jail actually had quite a few good books which was weird because it was a small town and I bet half the people that live there can't read. That might explain it actually they were given books as a gift and just donated them.

Apaches is about a group of older cops who were al forced to retire due to injury or something else, and they still wanted to be cops. One of their friends daughters is kidnapped, and they join together trying to find her. The people who took her ran a drug smuggling ring that uses dead babies and packs drugs in them to smuggle them through airports. It was messed up, they would kidnap kids, kill them, and cut em open and stuff as much as they could in them.

The characters were all pretty interesting and it was very entertaining, I like James Patteson books because they are quick reads and this one was kind of like that. The ex-cops weren't working for the police so they could do shit without fear of getting in trouble, not that cops are afraid of getting in trouble they just do what they want and don't have to abide by the same laws as everyone else. I also read Mystic River and if you haven't seen the movie or read the book I highly recommend it, the movies has sean penn. kevin bacon, and Tim Robbins in it.

[puppy]

For those of you who refuse to use a Kindle...I too fought against using one or the app...I love love books...I have thousands upon thousands of books...( my own and what my father left me) enough I would love to one day have a library in my house...unfortunately most are packed away because I have far too many and not enough bookcases or space for said bookcases...so I did get the Kindle app and damn if I don't love it...I can access any number of books at anytime and can do searches, keep notes and a ton of other things...tons of free books...anything published before 1923 I believe we're before copyrighting and are public domain....so even though I continue to purchase books I do love the Kindle...plus it's instant when you purchase a book that's nice at 3am....

[Illadelph215]

For those of you who refuse to use a Kindle...I too fought against using one or the app...I love love books...I have thousands upon thousands of books...( my own and what my father left me) enough I would love to one day have a library in my house...unfortunately most are packed away because I have far too many and not enough bookcases or space for said bookcases...so I did get the Kindle app and damn if I don't love it...I can access any number of books at anytime and can do searches, keep notes and a ton of other things...tons of free books...anything published before 1923 I believe we're before copyrighting and are public domain....so even though I continue to purchase books I do love the Kindle...plus it's instant when you purchase a book that's nice at 3am....

I think you just sold me on getting one, I have been thinking about it for awhile and your experience definitely is swaying me to make a move! Thanks

[St. Theresa]

BEHOLD A PALE HORSE by William Cooper
MARCHING POWDER by Rusty Young
SHANTARM / THE MOUNTAIN SHADOW by Gregory David Roberts

Are all also great reads.

Every book you listed is fantastic included behold a pale horse. Good choices, man.

Hero you might like confessions of economic hitman by John Perkins. 

[Dhedmo]

As we've been moving (AGAIN), I've had the opportunity to at least touch some of my books. Like Puppy, I have thousands, almost all in storage.

Anyway, I came upon my Patricia Moyes books.

I'd never heard of her until a few years ago, when a nearly complete set of her 19 Henry & Emmy Tibbett mysteries showed up at the Friends of the Library Bookstore: Henry Holt Owl (paperback) editions from the late 70s and early 80s, printed on remarkably acid-free, bright white pages.

There was a sale, and I picked up the whole set for $4. Then, about a year ago nearly another complete set appeared there, also during a sale.

FOTL Bookstores sell items donated by the public. This meant that at least two people had been pretty avid Moyes fans!

Patricia Moyes (Patricia Pakenham-Walsh) was an Irish-born British writer. She was Peter Ustinov's personal assistant from 1946-1955, and co-wrote the film School for Scoundrels, starring Ian Carmichael (famous for his mid-70s portrayal of Dorothy Sayers' Lord Peter Wimsey), Terry Thomas, and Alistair Sim. She was an associate editor at Vogue, and it was at this time she translated Jean Anouilh's 1940 play Léocadia as Time Remembered. This was a huge success in London (1955, starring Paul Scofield, Margaret Rutherford and Mary Ure) and on Broadway (1957, with Richard Burton, Helen Hayes and Susan Strasberg, and wining several Tony Awards). Time Remembered allowed her to leave Vogue and write mysteries full time.

What sets Moyes apart is her ability to mine so many different interests in her books. Two, including her first, Dead Men Don't Ski (1959), are set around Alpine skiing. In several of her books, but most particularly The Sunken Sailor (1961) - US title: Down Among the Dead Men, sailing is prominently featured. Murder a la Mode (1963) is set in the world of fashion publishing, while Falling Star (1964) is set in the milieu of the UK film in the mid-60s.

Johnny Under Ground (1965) pays homage to her years in the Women's Auxiliary Air Force, focusing on events that had happened 20 years earlier. If you think of it, that would be as immediate to contemporary readers as the mid-1990s are to us. In fact, the mid-40s are closer to my birth date than the mid-90s (or...gasp...the mid-80s!) But that's a whole nother thread...

After divorcing photographer John Moyes in 1959, the author married IMF linguist James Haszard. Their time at the Hague flavors Death and the Dutch Uncle (1968), in which sailing plays an important part.

Other themes include dog racing, international intrigue, and even transgender issues (in 1978!)

Moyes moved to the British Virgin Islands, where she died in 2000. The Caribbean featured prominently in several of her books.

In addition to very diverse, detailed and realistic settings, Moyes had a gift for rich plots and surprisingly diverse characters. There are surprisingly few "types" in here books. Also, I've found that while I've started certain books with a nagging sense that I won't enjoy "this" one (perhaps the setting doesn't immediately appeal to me), at some point or another I end up hunched in my seat, reading voraciously, eager to reach the solution. I'm down to my last four or five and I have to admit  I'll be sorry, when the last is read, that there are no more.

It's light, but very satisfying, reading. Ideal for when you're moving, and David Foster Wallace just won't do, lol.


Moyes' obituary, from The Guardian:
http://www.theguardian.com/news/2000/aug/22/guardianobituaries.crimebooks

A New York Times book reviewer once noted that the detective writer Patricia Moyes, who has died aged 77, "made drug dealing look like bad manners rather than bad morals".

Hers was a cosy genre of classic crime fiction, which continues to be successful in the United States while languishing in Britain, where most of her books are out of print. Earlier in her career, she had been a radar operator in the Women's Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF), an assistant to Peter Ustinov, a scriptwriter, translator and Vogue jounalist.

Moyes, was the creator of the imperturbable and engaging Scotland Yard detective, Henry Tibbett (initially chief inspector, and eventually detective chief superintendent), and his cheerful, but formidable, Dutch [sic] wife, Emmy. Tibbett features in 19 novels, from Dead Men Don't Ski (1959) to Twice In A Blue Moon (1993). Many Deadly Returns (1970) won the Edgar Allan Poe Special Award from the Mystery Writers of America.


The books were written in the well-established tradition of British detective fiction, in which solving the crime is the focus rather than the crime itself. But Moyes's perspective was international: she lived in France, Switzerland, Holland and the United States, before moving to the British Virgin Islands, where she died, and drew on her experiences of these places.

Patricia Pakenham-Walsh was born in Dublin; her father was in the Indian civil service and retired in 1938 as a high court judge in Madras. Penny (as she was always known) was educated at Overstone girls' school, Northampton, where she was an exceptional pupil. At 15, she sat an entrance examination for Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford; the examiner stated that her papers were as good as any, but that she was far too young and should reapply.

When war came in 1939, Moyes added a year to her age in order to join the WAAF. She had always wanted to write and, while a flight officer, wrote review sketches for barrack concerts. Peter Ustinov invited her to be his technical assistant on the film, School For Secrets (1946) about the search and discovery of radar. They became friends, and she later became his personal assistant for eight years.

Moyes's translation of Jean Anouilh's play, Leocadia, was produced in 1957 in London and on Broadway, as Time Remembered, starring Richard Burton and Helen Hayes. She was assistant editor on Vogue (1953-58), and in 1960 collaborated on the script of School For Scoundrels, based on Stephen Potter's books, One Upmanship and Lifemanship. With the success of Time Remembered, she moved to France, where she wrote her first novel while recovering from a skiing accident.

After the break-up of her first marriage (1951-59) to photographer John Moyes, she married James Haszard, a lawyer and interpreter at the international court of justice in The Hague. The couple were renowned sailors and skiers, and Haszard only accepted his posting in the early 1970s, to the International Monetary Fund in Washington, on condition that their boat, wine cellar and cats were transported there too. On Jim's retirement, they settled in Virgin Gorda, where he died in 1994.

Penny loved cats, and, on Virgin Gorda, she was involved in a campaign to innoculate, treat and spay the wild cat population. Cats featured in many of her writings, and she wrote two books specifically about them: After All They're Only Cats (1973), and How To Talk To Your Cat (1991).

Jenny Chamier Grove writes:

Patricia Moyes's knowledge of radar was partly responsible for her first steps as a writer.

One night, the Air Ministry sent a signal asking for names of people with film script-writing experience and knowledge of radar. Patricia, who had worked on state-of-the-art short wavelength radar, but had never so much as seen a film script, looked longingly at the message, wishing she had the qualifications to apply. Next day, her commanding officer told her he had submitted her name. "Sir, you're crazy!" she said - but she got the job with Peter Ustinov.

She had a sharp eye for material for use in her plots; a chat with "a very nice greyhound trainer" in Surrey led to The Curious Affair Of The Third Dog (1986), and tips from a parasailing instructor in Jamaica came in useful for Black Girl White Girl (1990).

It was in a mystery bookshop in New York that she first met the crime writer Sarah Caudwell (Obituary, February . The two established an instant rapport, and soon managed to combine forces for book-signing tours. "We laughed our way all across the United States," Patricia told me later.

Friends thought them alike. They both eschewed the mean streets and wrote about murders among the well-mannered middle classes, but while Sarah tended to be vague and academic - puffing on her pipe and talking about Catullus - Patricia was practical, and made sure that they always arrived on time.

Even so, on one tour of the US, Sarah contrived to lose her travellers' cheques, passport, return ticket to England and raincoat. Slightly annoyed, Patricia expostulated. Sarah remained placid. Eventually documents - and equanimity - were restored. "Sarah might have been less calm if she'd lost her pipe," Patricia commented later.

• Patricia 'Penny' Moyes (Haszard), writer, born January 19 1923; August 2 2000

bibliography (with links to cover art for the Owl books):
http://www.cozy-mystery.com/patricia-moyes.html

[SPARKSFLY666]

@st. Theresa thanks! Love the bill hicks quote, not related but have you, or anyone for that matter read THE WILILEAKS FILES? I'm hearing a lot of mixed reviews... not that I don't have an impossibly full que already but hey... I AM A JUNKIE! Excess! Excess! Thank you come again!

[corlene]

Some very very interesting stuff over there at wikileaks, gotta dig thru the troves of files tho.

Check out the book 13 hours: the real story of benghazi by Mitchell Zuckoff. Michael Bay is the director behind the movie being released next week.

[SPARKSFLY666]

@corlene I saw the Trailer for  the Michael Bay movie the other day the books been on my list. I'm on the road for the next four weeks or so and will surely miss the movie in theaters let me know if you see it. Thanks for the recommendation!