My own fiction book list at present:
Red Star: the First Bolshevik Utopia by Alexander Bogdanov. I've been reading a pile of SF lately:
Kim Stanley Robinson,
Octavia E. Butler,
re-read Arundhati Roy's The God of Small Things,
and, since Fidel just died, to finally read from cover to cover his favorite book (For Whom the Bells Toll by E Hemingway).
I have a Wikipedia-created book on Collected Works of Bertoldt Brecht and am looking forward to it.
My non-fiction list is much, much longer.
I have the latest Kim Stanley Robinson book, Aurora.
I have the latest Kim Stanley Robinson book, Aurora.
Me too. Never read any of his books yet. I'd be good with that (if you think so, Caissa). I'd also be fine with any of Arundathi Roy's books. Which is her latest? Gotta go check.
Or anything else! Within reason.
I read that Roy's new book is not out until next year.
Does it have to be a newly released book? Hemingway's For the Whom the Bell Tolls should be easy to find. Anyway, I'm already into ch 3.
It has been years since I read it. I am up for anything we can reach consensus on.
I have a copy somewhere on these shelves ... will probably take me longer to find it than read it. But count me in.
I'm in for Hemingway. I'll open a new thread soon. What deadline should we set? It's a longish book - at least, that's what I recall from when I last read it about half a century ago.
I picked up a copy from the university library. How about January 13, 2017?
I picked up a copy from the university library. How about January 13, 2017?
Works for me. Others? I think I'll send a group PM to the usual suspects...
Sure. Let's go with Friday the 13th. What could possibly go wrong?
I have the latest Kim Stanley Robinson book, Aurora.
Me too. Never read any of his books yet.
I was a big fan of the Mars trilogy in the 90s. [i]The Years of Rice and Salt[/i] was also pretty good. Haven't read anything of his lately, though.
"It's a good book," he said, looking around more carefully now, where the pine needle forest joined the green slope of the alpine meadow.
"But you always say that," she said, smiling, and shifting the submachine gun in the crook of her left arm.
"Yes, but it is true this time." Just then, Lieutenant Berrendo rode up the trail.
Finished For Whom the Bell Tolls over the vacation period.
Finished For Whom the Bell Tolls over the vacation period.
I haven't even started. 
And given the way my life has been going (unexpectedly busy), I have zero confidence I'll be finished in time.
I'm really sorry, folks. It looked easier when it was farther away. Some kind of inverse metaphor for life's goals.
Finished. I can see why Fidel Castro Ruz liked it so much.
Is this still on for Friday, - or is it getting bumped? Just wondering....
I am in and out of meetings all day today but could throw in the occassional though.
Sadly, my pessimism proved accurate.
I could critique other people's opinions, but not offer many of my own.
Wait a minute... isn't that one of babble's defining features?
Unless others are ready and available, let's figure out something else.
Friday the 13th. Shoulda known. Wasn't meant to be.
How about a one week extension?
How about a one week extension?
Doesn't work for me. I'm busy with work every day till then (almost). Two weeks... might do it.
Spoiler alert.
The story follows protagonist Robert Jordan in his role as a dynamiter working in/for one of the International Brigades during the 1930's defence of the Spanish Republic against Franco's fascists. One of the most striking things about the novel is the terse language used by the characters in the story. I think this laconic style is generally indicative for Hemingway; it is, however, perfectly suited to the subject matter and has an effect on attentive readers.
The story matters to the whole world then ... and still does.
