[Thanos]

Hyack Hyack:

Harris' Farmer's Almanac 2018

Please say they're predicting a normal rainfall for next summer please. Still coughing out smoke and ashes from those forest fires.

[Hyack]

Harris is actually a US based almanac, although according to a Canadian based almanac they seem to be forecasting near normal or normal precipitation for most of Western Canada for 2018.

[Hyack]

Once again, I just picked up my copy of John Steinbeck's intriguing story of the lives of the paisanos living above the town of Monterey California in the 1930's, also one of the predecessors of Cannery Row and Of Mice and Men, also one of his greatest....The Grapes of Wrath.....Anyhow just restarted reading Tortilla Flat.

[2Cdo]

Just recieved "Murder City; The untold story of Canadas serial killer capital 1959-1984". An interesting read about the high rate of unsolved murders, and possible serial killers in the London Ontario area.

[BeaverFever]

Ancestral Journeys: The Peopling of Europe from the First Venturers to the Vikings
By Jean Manco

Pleasant read, detailing the history of human settlement in Europe from the first hunter-gatherers to the arrival of the first farmers from the Middle East, then the arrival of the first Indo-European speakers from the Russian steppes and eventual creation and movements of recognizable cultures such as Celts, Slavs, etc, with chapters dedicated to the history of each group.

Official description:

$1:

Who are the Europeans and where did they come from? In recent years scientific advances have released a mass of data, turning cherished ideas upside down. The idea of migration in prehistory, so long out of favour, is back on the agenda. Visions of continuity have been replaced with a more dynamic view of Europe’s past, with one wave of migration followed by another, from the first human arrivals in Europe to the Vikings.

Ancient DNA links Europe to its nearest neighbours. It is not a new idea that farming was brought from the Near East, but genetics now reveals an unexpectedly complex process in which farmers arrived not in one wave, but several. Even more unexpected is the evidence that the European gene pool was stirred vigorously many times after farming had reached most of Europe. Climate change played a part in this upheaval, but so did new inventions such as the plough and wheeled vehicles. Genetic and linguistic clues also enhance our understanding of the upheavals of the Migration Period, the wanderings of steppe nomads, and the adventures of the Vikings.

Supplementary info on the book’s website:

http://www.ancestraljourneys.org

Book can also be downloaded on Pirate Bay

[raydan]

Comic books...

[DrCaleb]

$1:

Unauthorized Bread: Real rebellions involve jailbreaking IoT toasters

Cory Doctorow's book, Radicalized, is up for a CBC award. To celebrate, here's an excerpt.

https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2020/01/ ... ppliances/

[N_Fiddledog]

I was intrigued enough by The Witcher TV series to put the books on hold at the library.

On my way to pick one up later in the day.

[stratos]

N_Fiddledog N_Fiddledog:

I was intrigued enough by The Witcher TV series to put the books on hold at the library.

On my way to pick one up later in the day.

could have listened to them for free on YouTube. I did till the lady of the lake one, book 4 or 5. It got to confusing and weird.

[housewife]

I just finished The Short Victorious War by David Weber but before that was Phule’s Paradise by Robert Asprin. So now I have to decide which next book I will read. Unless I start The Coming of the Horseclans by Robert Adams. Or White Wing by Gordon Kendall. Or some random book on my kindle. Now I can’t decide… it’s officially a tomorrow problem!

[DrCaleb]

https://weird-old-book-finder.glitch.me/

[Strutz]

I mentioned in the random thoughts thread recently that, while taking some stuff to the local thrift store, I happened to find a few books to buy. One of them was The Handmaid's Tale, which, believe it or not I never did read... until now. I just finished it earlier today. Wow but that was an interesting one that captured me right away. I get why it has been considered controversial now too.

It reminded me in a way of Orwell's 1984 in that there were bits here and there that were not all that far-fetched from today's reality, even though both books were fictional views of the future.

[DrCaleb]

I've been re-reading the old Dune series, and this time I'll be reading the new Dune series too. I've never read those.

[DrCaleb]

Still working my way through the dozen odd books of Dune. It's hard to keep them straight.

Also reading "The Order of Time" by Carlo Rovelli. It's a really challenging to forget what you think is real, and accept what science can demonstrate is real.

[Strutz]

This morning I finished reading One Flew over the Cuckoos Nest. I found it last summer at a thrift store and tried to read it months ago but couldn't get into it. Tried again recently and finally got through it. A rather strange story and understandable why it is considered controversial. I doubt I'll want to read it again so it will go into the ongoing box of stuff for the next round destined for the thrift store.

At the same time I found that book I found a copy of Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol but since it follows Da Vinci Code, which I still have but haven't read for years, I should read that one again first then that one.