What are you reading?

I`ve just started " My Next Breath " by Jeremy Renner. His memoir of his Jan. `23 accident, getting run over by his 14000 LB. Snowcat he was operating at his Tahoe property. He screwed up and paid the price. He chronicles the incident, rescue, treatment and rehab. Horrific injuries, 38 broken bones and a large list of other serious matters. I have no idea how he made it through that.
 
Started rereading this the other day. Whenever the “Ministry of Truth” is mentioned I automatically think of the CBC. It’s amazing where George Orwell saw the world heading in 1948 when he wrote this book. Don’t think it can happen? Just take a look at China, it already has.
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Bobo said:
Started rereading this the other day. Whenever the “Ministry of Truth” is mentioned I automatically think of the CBC. It’s amazing where George Orwell saw the world heading in 1948 when he wrote this book. Don’t think it can happen? Just take a look at China, it already has.
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Back when teenage guys were " reading " Playboy or Penthouse, Trudeau was " reading " that. ;)
 
A sci-fi fairy tale on an astonishing scale
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allaboutromance.com

Paradox series by Rachel Bach

I’ve reviewed Rachel Bach’s three-book Paradox trilogy (Fortune’s Pawn, Honor’s Knight, and Heaven’s Queen) together here because, first, they are one complete story, and second, because I binged them so hard and fast I didn’t have time to review them one at a time. I think maybe three days...
allaboutromance.com allaboutromance.com
 
Steinbeck
Incredible wordsmith…..think I’m doing some more reading to refresh

Apparently there is a new East of Eden in works for Netflix …7 episodes,

> Netflix is producing a limited series adaptation of John Steinbeck's "East of Eden", starring Florence Pugh, Christopher Abbott, Mike Faist, and Hoon Lee</mark>. The seven-episode series, written by [Zoe Kazan] will offer a contemporary take on the multigenerational saga, focusing on the Trask family and Cathy Ames, the novel's antihero. Filming is currently underway in New Zealand.
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Decent choice for Cathy
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Netflix's East of Eden series is eyeing a Poor Things star to join the Florence Pugh-led project. John Steinbeck's 1952 novel was first adapted into the 1955 film directed by Elia Kazan and starring James Dean in his first major role as a troubled young man searching for his identity while competing for the affection of his deeply religious father with his favored brother. In 2022, after a competitive bidding war, Netflix acquired the rights to the East of Eden limited series with Florence Pugh starring and producing. Zoe Kazan, the granddaughter of Elia Kazan, is writing and executive producing.
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Jennifer Lawrence had been cast but I think Pugh is closer to description. Just about 60% through the audio book...the production is very good with the voices
Very engaging story.
 
MacDoc said:
Steinbeck
Incredible wordsmith…..think I’m doing some more reading to refresh

Apparently there is a new East of Eden in works for Netflix …7 episodes,


Decent choice for Cathy
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more

Jennifer Lawrence had been cast but I think Pugh is closer to description. Just about 60% through the audio book...the production is very good with the voices
Very engaging story.
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Steinbeck is my favourite author, great stories in plain language. My all time favourite is “Of Mice And Men”, I’ve read it 3 or 4 times and still cry when I get to to the end. I watched the original “East of Eden” last year, great movie, great performances except for James Dean who I think is one of the most overrated actors ever. The wife and I were in Marfa, Texas last year where “Giant” was filmed,James Dean’s last movie, so we decided to watch it. His performance was unbearable, I almost couldn’t watch it.
 
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This is the book Ghost and The Darkness movie was based on
scary shite....movie still haunts me.

It's very interesting to read a first hand account right on the edge of the railroad opening Africa often to tribes that had very little contact with the outside world. Of course the maneaters were horrendous but the other stories are also excellent and easy to imagine oneself back just before the turn of the 19th century before war and influenza ravaged the world. Britain at the height of it's empire. Very satisfying read.

Would be a good companion read to some of the histories of Africa and empires like the Shaka Zulu ....their leader a military and social organizational genius on a par with Napoleon....and who nearly defeated the British army. I might grab a few of the relevant books to re-read.
en.wikipedia.org

Shaka - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org

military-history.fandom.com

Shaka

Shaka kaSenzangakhona (c. 1787 – c. 22 September 1828), also known as Shaka[2] Zulu (Zulu pronunciation: [ˈʃaːɠa]), was the most influential leader of the Zulu Kingdom. He is widely credited with uniting many of the Northern Nguni people, specifically the Mtetwa Paramountcy and the Ndwandwe into...
military-history.fandom.com military-history.fandom.com
 
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Despite inflicting a convincing nightmare on myself I persist.
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Very evocative, irreverant and brutal writer.
Some of these authors are just wonderful in their outlook and willingness to state it...
Horn of the Hunter
Author’s Note

THIS is a book about Africa in which I have tried to avoid most of the foolishness, personal heroism, and general exaggeration that usually attend works of this sort. It is a book important only to the writer and has no sociological significance whatsoever. :sneaky:
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I notice Noraly's spiritual predecessor book and decided to re-read it. Forgotten how hilariously eccentric her upbringing was.
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n 1982, at the age of just twenty-three and halfway through her architecture studies, Elspeth Beard left her family and friends in London and set off on a 35,000-mile solo adventure around the world on her 1974 BMW R60 6. Reeling from a recent breakup and with only limited savings from her pub job, a tent, a few clothes and some tools, all packed on the back of her bike, she was determined to prove herself. She had ridden bikes since her teens and was well travelled. But nothing could prepare her for what lay ahead. When she returned to London nearly two and a half years later she was stones lighter and decades wiser. She’d ridden through unforgiving landscapes and countries ravaged by war, witnessed civil uprisings that forced her to fake documents, and fended off sexual attacks, biker gangs and corrupt police convinced she was trafficking drugs. She’d survived life-threatening illnesses, personal loss and brutal accidents that had left permanent scars and a black hole in her memory. And she’d fallen in love with two very different men. In an age before email, the internet, mobile phones, satnavs and, in some parts of the world, readily available and reliable maps, Elspeth achieved something that would still seem remarkable today. Told with honesty and wit, this is the extraordinary and moving story of a unique and life-changing adventure.
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Going further back in time


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Used by Ted Simon for a solo round the world journey (63,400 miles) a 1974 Triumph Tiger 100 National Motor Museum, Beaulieu

en.wikipedia.org

Jupiter's Travels - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org
 
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My hero ....still riding at 90 and he redid his original journey at 69.
 
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Insanely intense

James Cameron is developing a film titled "Ghosts of Hiroshima", based on Charles R. Pellegrino's book, which tells the stories of survivors of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombings. This will be Cameron's first non-Avatar movie in nearly 30 years, focusing on the human perspective of the events and the story of individuals who survived both bombings, notably Tsutomu Yamaguchi. The project is described as his most challenging, aiming for a visceral and spiritual portrayal of the nuclear events from a Japanese viewpoint.

The Book & Inspiration:
    • "Ghosts of Hiroshima" by Charles R. Pellegrino: was published on August 5, 2025, coinciding with the 80th anniversary of the Hiroshima bombing.
    • Pellegrino, a science consultant for Cameron on Titanic and Avatar, researched the book with firsthand accounts from survivors.
    • Cameron was inspired by the book's stories and a personal pledge to a survivor of both bombings, Tsutomu Yamaguchi.
The Film Project:
    • Director:
      James Cameron.
    • Focus:
      The film will be a human-centric narrative, adapting the survivors' accounts rather than creating fictional characters.
    • Story:
      It centers on the true stories of individuals, particularly Tsutomu Yamaguchi, who survived the bombing of Hiroshima and later, the bombing of Nagasaki.
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Cautionary read from the same author as the Twin Towers narrative
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Lucky that Hitler was an anti-semite.
”While there were just 350 Jewish families in Hungary on the eve of World War II, that small group possessed one of the greatest generations of scientific talent in world history, including physicists Eugene Wigner and Edward Teller, computer pioneer John von Neumann, and the space-defining aerospace engineer Theodore von Kármán. “Out of the prospering but vulnerable Hungarian Jewish middle class came no fewer than seven of the twentieth century’s most exceptional scientists,” historian Richard Rhodes wrote. “The mystery of such a concentration of ability from so remote and provincial a place has fascinated the community of science.””😱
Captivating read as was the Twin Towers narrative he crafted.

This startled me ....so small an item
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Ralph C. Sparks: Phil Morrison and [Chicago Met Lab chemist] Roy Thompson came into Gamma shop with a security guard. Roy asked if I could take a smooth stone and remove some rough spots on one of the central hemispheres. I opened the magnesium carrying case with my Allen wrench and Phil removed the top hemisphere. The plutonium hemispheres had been nickelplated to prevent oxidation. There were two or three small bumps on the nickel surface. I took out my 600-grit Indian honing stone and stoned the lumps away. The hemisphere was warm to the touch, about 110 degrees F, and would stay warm for several hundred years. As I lifted the piece of plutonium, I found it hard to believe the value of it—many millions of dollars. The Army security guard stood by to be sure the metal didn’t get lost or stolen. Phil placed the thin gold disc between the hemispheres, and the carrying case was reassembled. That afternoon Phil delivered the carrying case and its contents to the McDonald ranch house at Trinity Site where final assembly would be done.
 
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Bobo said:
Started rereading this the other day. Whenever the “Ministry of Truth” is mentioned I automatically think of the CBC. It’s amazing where George Orwell saw the world heading in 1948 when he wrote this book. Don’t think it can happen? Just take a look at China, it already has.
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Any suggestions on books covering "Surviving Dystopia"
 
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Same narrative style as the Twin Towers book - very engaging..
 
Bobo said:
Started rereading this the other day. Whenever the “Ministry of Truth” is mentioned I automatically think of the CBC. It’s amazing where George Orwell saw the world heading in 1948 when he wrote this book. Don’t think it can happen? Just take a look at China, it already has.
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Any suggestions on books covering "Surviving Dystopia"
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Active imaginations 🙄

Orwell was alluding to Churchill's cover up of the Enigma machines role in the war as he could not write openly about it due to the Secrets Act. He was an insider at the time and the secrecy about it was draconian. The actual story was not revealed until 1994 - read Body Guard if Lies - when the archives were opened

Comparing that to CBC is ludicrous. :coffee:
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