false 24 157 120 true 5808542 read 4 true 1483332 currently-reading 33 true 1483331 to-read 29 false 5448882 the-library 20 false 5448911 dc-library 12 false 8513515 series---discworld 10 false 8284553 to-purchase 8 false 8513178 collections--lathen 5 false 8512788 to-read-before-i-die 4 false 8513506 series---asoiaf <![CDATA[Charles added 'In FED We Trust: Ben Bernanke's War on the Great Panic']]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/80693376 In FED We Trust: Ben Bernanke's War on the Great Panic (Hardcover) by David Wessel
bookshelves: to-read
]]> <![CDATA[Charles added 'Wishful Drinking']]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/80520225 Wishful Drinking (Paperback) by Carrie Fisher
bookshelves: to-read
]]> <![CDATA[Charles added 'A Christmas Carol']]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/80156134 to: A Christmas Carol (paperback) by Charles Dickens
]]> <![CDATA[Charles added 'Unseen Academicals']]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/78944468 to: Unseen Academicals (Discworld, #37) by Terry Pratchett
bookshelves: series---discworld
This latest installment of Pratchett's twenty-some volume Discworld "series" turns its sharp eye to professional sports, notably "foot-the-ball," what we Yanks call soccer, romance novels, and High Fashion. Hilarity, of course, ensues, but, as ever, it is the hilarity that comes with taking the rules of Fantasy very seriously, and then letting characters loose in them.
This particular volume is unique in the high amount of face time Lord Havelock Vetinari receives. He has historically been a kind of background character, given a page here, a paragraph there. This time, we actually get to see him at work. We're not allowed into that shining, sharp, steel mind of his, but he explains himself to us with a bit more frequency than has been common in the past.
The moving of Vetinari to the center of books, rather than keeping him at a periphery, is very much in keeping with two observed trends. First, what I call the "Ankh Morpork" series, those books focusing on Ankh Morpork as it transforms from a stereotypical Fantasy city into a thriving, modern, metropolitan Fantasy city. Title in this last are, mainly, "The Truth," "Going Postal," "Making Money" and, now, "Unseen Academicals." The other group, of course, is the longer running "Coppers" series, which details the tribulations of Sam Vimes and the Night/City Watch.
One other thing that is more pronounced in "Unseen Academicals" is the view of the Watch. We, as readers, know the Watch as "the good guys:" Sam Vimes may be an asshole, but he's doing his best and He Gets His Man/Dwarf/Vampire/Golem/&c. Like "Making Money" and "Going Postal," "Unseen Academicals" gives us the citizen's view of the Watch as often reckless, authoritarian, and dubiously legal/ethical, much like actual police work from the citizen's view. ]]> <![CDATA[Charles is on page 202 of Liberal Fascism: The... ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/77964287 Charles is on page 202 of 405 of Liberal Fascism: The Secret History of the American Left from Mussolini to the Politics of Meaning ]]> <![CDATA[Charles added 'Too Big to Fail: The Inside Story of How Wall Street and Washington Fought to Save the Financial System from Crisis---and Lost']]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/77980623 Too Big to Fail: The Inside Story of How Wall Street and Washington Fought to Save the Financial System from Crisis---and Lost (Hardcover) by Andrew Ross Sorkin
bookshelves: to-purchase, to-read
]]> <![CDATA[Charles added 'Too Big to Save How to Fix the U.S. Financial System']]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/77980593 Too Big to Save How to Fix the U.S. Financial System (Hardcover) by Robert Pozen
bookshelves: dc-library, the-library, to-read
]]> <![CDATA[Charles added 'Murder Without Icing']]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/77965032 Murder Without Icing (Paperback) by Emma Lathen
bookshelves: collections--lathen, the-library
]]> <![CDATA[Charles added 'Death Shall Overcome']]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/77964997 Death Shall Overcome (A John Putnam Thatcher Mystery) by Emma Lathen
bookshelves: collections--lathen, the-library
]]> <![CDATA[Charles added 'Accounting for Murder']]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/77964945 Accounting for Murder (Otto Penzler's Classic American Mystery Library) by Emma Lathen
bookshelves: collections--lathen, the-library
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