Books: What are you reading tonight?

Schattenfroh

I have learned there is a visual guide that explains much of the imagery which comes from paintings in the book

https://theuntranslated.wordpress.com/2025/06/19/a-visual-guide-to-schattenfroh/

The Untranslated

A Visual Guide to Schattenfroh

The narrator is hooked up to some sort of contraption which is feeding him images and recording his thoughts.

These are quite good altho I found the first one to be a notch better than the 2nd. But will def read the 3rd next year on release.

Some recent reads - 3 Iran-centric:

King of Kings by Scott Anderson. Nonfiction account of the Iranian revolution. Highly recommend. Learned a lot, and the pacing is strong and reads like a novel.

The Persian by David McCloskey, a former CIA analyst. A little disjointed at first but ultimately a decent spy fiction story. Not as good as his earlier books.

The Seige by Ben McIntyre. Really strong - nonfiction account of the 1980 seizure of the Iranian embassy in London. I’ve loved everything I have read by MacIntyre, with the Traitor and the Spy still my favorite.

Ingram by Louis CK. Yep, that Louis CK. His first novel. Ultimately I enjoyed, and not just for the novelty of it. It’s a heavily Twain-influenced (but not in the way he refers to in his standup ha) coming of age story. Some peculiar decisions around setting, which are not fully developed, and attempts at something more meta detract from the story and seem completely superfluous, but otherwise enjoyed.

Murder in Constantinople by A.E. Goldin. Another debut novel, about an early 1850’s Jewish petty criminal teenager who gets wrapped up in a murder mystery in Constantinople at the outset of the Crimean War. Really like this one at the end of the day, but the author leans waaaaaay too heavily on Deus Ex Machina through the middle part of the story. Apparently the first of a planned series, with the second installment set in China and coming out in 2026.

I'm liking Eminent Jews by David Denby. I like most of Denby's books. This is basically 4 mini-bios: Mel Brooks, Norman Mailer, Betty Friedan, and Leonard Bernstein. Denby knows how to tell a story, always frames things well.

And how about that Norman Mailer guy anyway; what was his problem.

Finished the Cameron Crowe memoir - it was incredible. It's mostly about his pre-movie days as a teenager getting to interview some of the biggest rock stars of the era, and his family life. It's amazing how true most of Almost Famous is...the band he actually went on tour with was The Allman Brosthers Band.

It's so difficult to write the way that he does - breezy, conversational, like he's talking to you. The guy has led a life, let me tell you. And his mother is EXACTLY like the the momo in Almost Famous lol. Fascinating woman.

Of the music stars he writes about, the nicest seem to be Ron Wood and David Bowie, while Greg Allman seems quite tortured and a bit of an as*hole. But he was mourning two band members' death at the time, including his brother, so I'll cut him some slack. The young Crowe is so unnassuming that he gets into place he shouldn't...it's like he's Woody Allen's Zelig lol.

Great, great read.

Annie Bot by Sierra Greer

Follows a "cuddle bunny" robot, as she attempts to learn to be more human, and becomes increasingly self-aware, while also becoming disillusioned by her abusive owner whom she's programmed to please.

Had lots of good reviews and awards, and didn't disappoint. Very enjoyable. One of my favourite books of the year.

That sounds like fun, thanks for the rec.

Where Does the Weirdness Go? by David Lindley.

This is an attempt to explain why the uncertainty and probability at the quantum level of physics are able to manifest a predictable, measurable, testable experience at the macro level.

I don't think he did a good job of bringing his explanation down to the layman's level. I got a few things, but overall it wasn't a great read, nor was it super illuminating.

They just write it off (it averages out).

BTW halfway through The Tainted Cup on audiobook from recommendation itt. Great performance, fun listen.

Teaching English in China
c1991

Fascinating look at history from people who taught English there when the [cold] war ended. Really got a glimpse of the inside early on.

Great quote from it:
"Ideas cannot be stopped, they can only be spread"

Here's a review that will give you a sense of what the book is like.

https://clereviewofbooks.com/michael-lentz-gus-oconnor-schattenfroh/

Cleveland Review of Books

Built By Language: On Michael Lentz’s “Schattenfroh” - Cleveland Review of Books

Even better is her second novel, Washington Black.

I would say bad ideas are driven out by better ideas.

Lysenkoism, for example.

Not *all* bad ideas, obviously.

like 10 years ago I want to thank someone for recommending paper tiger in here and the golf forum section.

I picked up untethered soul and art of learning.

which f two should I read ? also flow audibok

The Best American Travel Writing for 2003, edited by Ian Frazier.

I enjoy picking up theses collections when I see them. I don't recall any of the stories being something that didn't interest me (usually there's one or two). Good read, though in some cases calling them "travel writing" is a bit of a stretch--some stories were more like reporting from a war or strife torn area.

Off the Map by Mark Jenkins.

The story of him and six others bicycling across the Soviet Union. Most of the book is their experiences across Siberia; the European part if just a few chapters at the end. Published 1992, so I assume the ride was late 80s or early 90s.

It was interesting to read of the problems they had getting through (a large stretch was a roadless swamp), and dealing with the Soviet bureaucracy at times. Overall, an interesting read of the experiences they had and the people they met. Many of the people in these little villages had never seen an American, and couldn't believe anyone would try to bicycle across their land. So those meet-ups were an interesting cross-cultural experience.

He used run-on sentences (I assume for a literary affect) at a few points I didn't like, but that was a very small diversion. Not great writing, but interesting enough. It moved along fairly well.

Have you ever tried to write something? For years I have been convinced that the secret to good writing is to come up with good opening sentences.

This morning, at 5 AM, I came upon this:

That's not how I would write it but that's one of my favorite books. I used to keep a copy in my car for emergency reading before we had cell phones.

You can't debunk Thoreau, Rick. Giant of literature. Did you read the book? The proof is in the prose. And I thought he sent the laundry out, I don't remember a mom.

i'm pretty sure anyone who made it past 9th grade has read the book amp

wasn't denouncing the book either - just saying that the isolation thing is overblown - and not by him - we know those details because he openly shared them

Is manga a book? I'm reading Berzerk for the first time, mostly because it was massively influential on Dark Souls creator Hidetaka Miyazaki.

Anyway, I'm entranced by this drawing of Puck flying in on a bird.

the first anime i ever watched was berzerk - it was... something...

no idea if it was faithful to the original comic or not but wow...

also didn't expect so much homoeroticism packed into it - it was at the point where i genuinely applauded it - like wow these guys are very confident in themselves and not worried at all about upsetting their base who are there to see demons beheading people

Finally reading Robert Greenfield’s book on the Rolling Stones 1972 tour. Introduction has a couple good Keith & Charlie anecdotes.

First two pages he writes about hearing Get Off Of My Cloud in November 1963, sigh.

I just started it. I haven't gotten to the part about laundry.