What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V

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Fallible
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V

Post by Fallible »

reggiesimpson wrote:Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
Hi Reggie,

You must be having an enjoyable read. I've always thought "Adventures" was among the best and
especially like The Five Orange Pips.

Fallible
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V

Post by reggiesimpson »

Fallible wrote:
reggiesimpson wrote:Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
Hi Reggie,

You must be having an enjoyable read. I've always thought "Adventures" was among the best and
especially like The Five Orange Pips.

Fallible
Excellent story indeed.
I am finding one of the great pleasures in the read is the way the sentences are structured and the descriptive methodology employed by the author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Almost as intriguing as the mysteries that are presented.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V

Post by chaz »

"The Cuckoo's Calling" is a wonderful murder mystery. I hope the author continues in this genre.

Next is "Be Cool" by Elmore Leonard.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V

Post by scone »

I'd like to join in, if I may-- especially since it's mysteries. I'm currently re-reading the The Third Rumpole Omnibus, by John Mortimer. If you like English mysteries and courtroom drama, this may be your dish of tea and scandal. :happy
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V

Post by Fallible »

Live Free or Diehard wrote:
Fallible wrote:Also sadly finished the fifth and last novel in the one-volume The Ultimate Hitchiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams. Favorite characters throughout, except for Ford Prefect and maybe Slartibartfast, are machines: Marvin the desperately unhappy android, Colin the desperately happy robot, Eddie the jovial shipboard computer, and the existential, talking elevators so bored with up and down they try sideways.
Don't Panic! :happy Did you know that Eoin Colfer published the sixth book of the Hitchhiker's trilogy in 2009? It's called And Another Thing...

Also, there are the Dirk Gently books (by Douglas Adams). I really liked them.
Thanks, I won't panic!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Actually, I'm mostly just sad that I'll never read those five books again for the first time, if you know what I mean. I do know of the other works and will be getting to them soon.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V

Post by protagonist »

Fallible wrote:
Live Free or Diehard wrote:
Fallible wrote:Also sadly finished the fifth and last novel in the one-volume The Ultimate Hitchiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams. Favorite characters throughout, except for Ford Prefect and maybe Slartibartfast, are machines: Marvin the desperately unhappy android, Colin the desperately happy robot, Eddie the jovial shipboard computer, and the existential, talking elevators so bored with up and down they try sideways.
Don't Panic! :happy Did you know that Eoin Colfer published the sixth book of the Hitchhiker's trilogy in 2009? It's called And Another Thing...

Also, there are the Dirk Gently books (by Douglas Adams). I really liked them.
Thanks, I won't panic!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Actually, I'm mostly just sad that I'll never read those five books again for the first time, if you know what I mean. I do know of the other works and will be getting to them soon.
Did any of you read And Another Thing? Comments on it??
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V

Post by Live Free or Diehard »

chaz wrote:"The Cuckoo's Calling" is a wonderful murder mystery. I hope the author continues in this genre.

Next is "Be Cool" by Elmore Leonard.
I just finished The Cuckoo's Calling. It had a very good ending. I liked Cuckoo's Calling much better than The Casual Vacancy.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V

Post by nisiprius »

I am currently alternating gulps of The Casual Vacancy by J. K. Rowling with nibbles of Masters of the Word: How Media Shaped History, by William J. Bernstein.

Riddle: What does Masters of the Word have in common with Lady Chatterley's Lover, Tropic of Cancer, and Naked Lunch?

Click cursor and drag from hereThe publisher, Grove Press. to here for answer.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V

Post by chaz »

nisiprius wrote:I am currently alternating gulps of The Casual Vacancy by J. K. Rowling with nibbles of Masters of the Word: How Media Shaped History, by William J. Bernstein.

Riddle: What does Masters of the Word have in common with Lady Chatterley's Lover, Tropic of Cancer, and Naked Lunch?

Click cursor and drag from hereThe publisher, Grove Press. to here for answer.
I thought "Masters of the Word: How Media Shaped History" might be a sexy book. But you supplied the missing link(in a very clever way).
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V

Post by Lon »

"Th God Delusion" by Richard Dawkins------It's a good read.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V

Post by motodoc42 »

Black List by Brad Thor.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V

Post by gkaplan »

Someday, Someday, Maybe by Lauren Gilmore of Gilmore Girls and Parenthood fame. This is a fun read, probably somewhat autobiographical, of a young woman trying to make it as an actress in New York City.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V

Post by abuss368 »

I purchased two books on McDonald's after a recommendation and I am really looking forward to reading them.

One is Ray Kroc's book and the other is Behind the Golden Arches (which was also a CNBC presentation).

I really do enjoy reading up on businesses (sometimes other than investing and portfolio construction).
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V

Post by randomwalk »

I recently finished The Unwinding by George Packer.

Now reading The Interestings by Meg Wolitzer.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V

Post by chaz »

"The Innocent" by David Baldacci.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V

Post by MP173 »

Nisparius suggestion of "The Fifties" by David Halberstram hit home.

I had picked up a brand new edition for 50 cents this summer at a garage sale and put it away, always intending to read it, but sort of intimidated by the 700 plus pages.

Now I am reading it (100 pages in) and am learning about the decade in which I was born. Halberstram was not kind to General McArthur (Korean War). I know of two people who have admitted to being in the Korean War. One will NOT talk about it (my wife's father...she says he has never discussed it) and the other was a co worker from 25 years ago. All he said was it was the most miserable he ever was in his life (cold).

So far...an excellent book.

Ed
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V

Post by Igglesman »

"The Fifties" great book by a great author.

For followup on Korea, I suggest also by Halberstam... The Coldest Winter: America and the Korean War

The Best and the Brightest is a good followup into the sixties. On my read-again list.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V

Post by nisiprius »

FInished The Casual Vacancy by J. K. Rowling, and I'm glad I did. Better than I'd thought. I thought it was a sort of mean-spirited black-humor piece. It is not. She is doing something rather interesting that doesn't become clear unless you read the whole book; it is comparable to an artist who is willing to paint almost all of a canvas in dark colors in order to make just one little part of it look as if it is glowing.

Just started Ninety Percent of Everything: Inside Shipping, the Invisible Industry That Puts Clothes on Your Back, Gas in Your Car, and Food on Your Plate, by Rose George. It's important to read the whole title--I had seen it referred to as "Ninety Percent of Everything," and thought it was a reference to Sturgeon's Law, "90% of everything is crap." It isn't. It's a reference to the fact that 90% of everything has been transported by ship. On the oceans, in container vessels. Not by air, not over the Internet. But that for various reasons, including largely private and secretive ownership, the whole industry has sort of disappeared from public view, it's no longer part of our mental map of the world. Only just started it; her last book, The Big Necessity, was great.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V

Post by Ricola »

After seeing the Jack Reacher movie I had to read one of the Lee Child novels. Finished Killing Floor, then 61 Hours and Worth Dying For. Very entertaining and will be adding some more of this series.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V

Post by chaz »

Ricola wrote:After seeing the Jack Reacher movie I had to read one of the Lee Child novels. Finished Killing Floor, then 61 Hours and Worth Dying For. Very entertaining and will be adding some more of this series.
I've read most of the Lee Child novels. Did you like Tom Cruise as Jack Reacher?
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V

Post by Ricola »

chaz wrote:
Ricola wrote:After seeing the Jack Reacher movie I had to read one of the Lee Child novels. Finished Killing Floor, then 61 Hours and Worth Dying For. Very entertaining and will be adding some more of this series.
I've read most of the Lee Child novels. Did you like Tom Cruise as Jack Reacher?
Not having read the book prior to seeing the movie, I did like Cruise in the movie. However after reading the books I can understand why some people didn't, but Cruise did convey the traits of singleness of mind and focus. I believe the author indicated that those traits were more import to convey than just physical presence. Granted thou, when reading the book I don't visualize Reacher much like Cruise.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V

Post by protagonist »

nisiprius wrote:FInished The Casual Vacancy by J. K. Rowling, and I'm glad I did. Better than I'd thought. I thought it was a sort of mean-spirited black-humor piece. It is not. She is doing something rather interesting that doesn't become clear unless you read the whole book; it is comparable to an artist who is willing to paint almost all of a canvas in dark colors in order to make just one little part of it look as if it is glowing.
Interesting. I thought she stopped writing. What is the target audience?
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V

Post by nisiprius »

protagonist wrote:
nisiprius wrote:FInished The Casual Vacancy by J. K. Rowling, and I'm glad I did. Better than I'd thought. I thought it was a sort of mean-spirited black-humor piece. It is not. She is doing something rather interesting that doesn't become clear unless you read the whole book; it is comparable to an artist who is willing to paint almost all of a canvas in dark colors in order to make just one little part of it look as if it is glowing.
Interesting. I thought she stopped writing. What is the target audience?
Adults.

Set in the present day in a small rural town in England. (Present day: a subplot revolves around the parish website being hacked by SQL injection). The title is a reference to a vacancy on the parish council due to the unexpected sudden death of a council member. The plot revolves in part on relationships between the middle-class town, and a low-income neighborhood in within it called "The Fields," and political infighting between factions that want to have the boundary redrawn to remove it from their town and incorporate it within a neighboring small city.

Read all about it in Wikipedia.

For adults, but no more unsuitable for older teens than a lot of stuff older teens read. Sex but no eroticism. And now that I think about it, the adolescents in it seem more real than most of the adults.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V

Post by lightheir »

Best book I've read in years, reading it right now:

Thinking Fast and Slow by Kahneman.

Check it out. Award-winning brain science from a Nobel laureate telling us how our brains REALLY work. And no, it's not just another lame layman's oversimplification of medical neuroscience - it's a very insightful and evidence based encapsulation of his life's work in the field and broadly applicable.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V

Post by Acesalad »

Just finished listening to Secrets of the Millionaire Mind and QBQ! The Question Behind the Question. Both were great SotMM was better than I expected. Very inspirational.

Currently listening to Mindset by Carol Dweck which is also excellent.

Next is reading Thou Shall Prosper and listening to Millionaire Teacher: The Nine Rules of Wealth You Should Have Learned in School
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V

Post by chaz »

For a change of genre, "Sh#t My Dad Says" by Justin Halpern. Humor instead of crime, though some comedians are criminal.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V

Post by market timer »

The Corrections, Jonathan Franzen.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V

Post by gkaplan »

I just started Swing, Brother, Swing, the fifteenth of the Roderick Alley crime novels of Ngaio Marsh.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V

Post by Tycoon »

A Concise Logic William H. Halverson

A very old college textbook I just can't get rid of.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V

Post by chaz »

Tycoon wrote:A Concise Logic William H. Halverson

A very old college textbook I just can't get rid of.
That book has made you into a Tycoon.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V

Post by ofcmetz »

The Coldest Winter: America and the Korean War by David Halberstam.

I find it to be very easy to read and interesting. As well as telling the history of the war it also goes into the politics surrounding the war. I'm about 1/5th through it and it has gone into a lot of history about McArthur and Truman as well. I can tell it's really building towards their struggle and McArthur's eventual firing.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V

Post by randomwalk »

I recently finished The Interestings by Meg Wolitzer.

Now reading Legacy of Ashes by Tim Weiner.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V

Post by chaz »

"A Wanted Man" by Lee Child.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V

Post by MP173 »

I am still reading "The Fifties" by David Halberstam. What an insightful book about a decade. I anticipate it will take at least 10 more days to read as it is a giant book (for me) and while it is interesting, it doesn't read fast (lots of names and events to digest).

Regarding "The Coldest War", Halberstam touches on that war quite a bit in "The Fifties", as it really sets the table politically for the election in 1952. I have added it to the list of books to read.

"The Corrections" was enjoyable. I have read this and "Freedom" and wish Franzen would publish more. He is very good.

I just read a Vanity Fair article by Michael Lewis on Kahneman, who was connected to Moneyball in a way. I plan on picking "Thinking Fast and Slow" soon.

Ed
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V

Post by FRefugee »

The Unwinding: An Inner History of the New America, by George Packer.

Outstanding.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V

Post by jjunk »

chaz wrote:For a change of genre, "Sh#t My Dad Says" by Justin Halpern. Humor instead of crime, though some comedians are criminal.
I just finished "I suck at girls" by Halpern. One of the funniest books I've read in a long time.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V

Post by ruralavalon »

Nada the Lily, by H. Rider Haggard.

An African tale of ghosts and revenge, built around the events of the fall of the Zulu nation.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V

Post by rjsob58 »

For fiction (sci-fi actually), just finished The Ender Quintet and The Shadow Series by Orson Scott Card. Very entertaining.

Non-fiction: Stop Prediabetes Now: The Ultimate Plan to Lose Weight and Prevent Diabetes by Jack Challem, Ron Hunninghake. I didn't really use the recipes or do the supplements they recommended, but lost 30lbs in 3-4 months and it took my Cholesterol down from over 400 to 150 in the same time frame. Got a gold star from my Dr.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V

Post by DriftingDudeSC »

Fat Ollie's Book by Ed McBain
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V

Post by chaz »

"The Last Patriot" by Brad Thor.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V

Post by gkaplan »

I'm just finishing up Opening Arguments: A Young Lawyer's First Case: United States v. Oliver North by Jeffrey Toobin. Toobin was fresh out of Harvard Law School and had not yet sat for the bar exam when he applied for, and was hired by, the Office of Independent Counsel. Led by Special Prosecutor Lawrence Walsh, the Office of Independent Counsel investigated and tried the leading figure in the Iran-Contra affair, Oliver North. Toobin served some twenty-eight months on Walsh's staff. (He passed the bar on his first try shortly after his appointment to the Office of Independent Counsel.)

This is a terrific book, and Jeffrey Toobin is an excellent writer. If the book tends toward legalese, this is no way detracts from its can't-put-down readability. (Don't be misled by the two reviews on Amazon, both of which are negative.)
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V

Post by Valuethinker »

gkaplan wrote:I'm just finishing up Opening Arguments: A Young Lawyer's First Case: United States v. Oliver North by Jeffrey Toobin. Toobin was fresh out of Harvard Law School and had not yet sat for the bar exam when he applied for, and was hired by, the Office of Independent Counsel. Led by Special Prosecutor Lawrence Walsh, the Office of Independent Counsel investigated and tried the leading figure in the Iran-Contra affair, Oliver North. Toobin served some twenty-eight months on Walsh's staff. (He passed the bar on his first try shortly after his appointment to the Office of Independent Counsel.)

This is a terrific book, and Jeffrey Toobin is an excellent writer. If the book tends toward legalese, this is no way detracts from its can't-put-down readability. (Don't be misled by the two reviews on Amazon, both of which are negative.)
Re Amazon reviews, there are certain categories of book you pretty much have to ignore the reviews, especially the negative ones.

There are instruction sheets issued by certain groups to their loyalists, about how to diss books on Amazon. Perhaps there are on the other side, I have merely encountered these in one area of interest. You can kind of spot them, because the language and the way they attack books is repeated for different books-- you even get the same wording sometimes.

The usual tipoff is when you begin to get a sense of the reviewer not having read the book.

Oliver North is a completely polarizing subject so it's quite possible this is an example (perhaps not organized in any way, just how people feel). You are going to have people who see him as a saint, and as a devil.
Last edited by Valuethinker on Sat Sep 07, 2013 6:49 am, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V

Post by Valuethinker »

rjsob58 wrote:For fiction (sci-fi actually), just finished The Ender Quintet and The Shadow Series by Orson Scott Card. Very entertaining.

Non-fiction: Stop Prediabetes Now: The Ultimate Plan to Lose Weight and Prevent Diabetes by Jack Challem, Ron Hunninghake. I didn't really use the recipes or do the supplements they recommended, but lost 30lbs in 3-4 months and it took my Cholesterol down from over 400 to 150 in the same time frame. Got a gold star from my Dr.
Card is a very controversial author-- big debate over his personal beliefs and his plans for the movie royalties. (I have not yet decided whether I will see the movie).

Whilst I believe that you can read an author and enjoy him/ her even if the author is personally quite objectionable, it probably is worth reading up about the debate.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V

Post by Valuethinker »

ofcmetz wrote:The Coldest Winter: America and the Korean War by David Halberstam.

I find it to be very easy to read and interesting. As well as telling the history of the war it also goes into the politics surrounding the war. I'm about 1/5th through it and it has gone into a lot of history about McArthur and Truman as well. I can tell it's really building towards their struggle and McArthur's eventual firing.
The major criticism I read of the book, and given the title you could argue that it's not a valid criticism, is that it tends to treat everyone else in the Korean war as an afterthought (but the title does say 'America's war'). It was a huge multinational operation on the UN side, involving Canadians, British, Turkish and many other countries. There is also a new book told more from the Korean perspective, and that too is fairly horrifying: the sacrifices of the Republic of Korea troops (many of whom were integrated with US units) and also the appaling behaviour of the dictator Singman Rhee's military police. One British commander went so far as to tell his superiors he would order his men to fire on Rhee's MPs, if they conducted another mass execution of civilians within visibility of his camp.

http://www.amazon.com/Brothers-War-Unen ... 0393068498
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V

Post by nisiprius »

Finished 90% of Everything, Rose George's book about the container shipping industry, and it is sensational, and very relevant to maintaining a vague crude understanding of something that is of gigantic global economic importance.

Just read Joseph Conrad's The Secret Agent: A Simple Tale. Shrug. It kept me reading, but I can't say I liked it much. The characters all seemed cartoonish, although you do sympathize with and feel quite sorry for Stevie, the exploited, mentally retarded boy. I did not find his explanation of why terrorists would choose to bomb the Greenwich Observatory to be at all convincing, and was going to complain of being unable to suspend disbelief, until I learned that he based it on a real incident--a real incident for which no coherent motive or explanation has ever been found. Along the way I found a New York Times review that explained to me something I hadn't understood, that there really had been a huge number of "anarchist," terrorist, bombing attempts in that era.

I do remember seeing at a museum a replica of some specific "anarchist" bomb. The traditional iconic comic-book image of the spherical bomb with the fuse is actually a stylized representation of one, specific, real-life design.

Image
Image
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V

Post by Valuethinker »

nisiprius wrote:Finished 90% of Everything, Rose George's book about the container shipping industry, and it is sensational, and very relevant to maintaining a vague crude understanding of something that is of gigantic global economic importance.

Just read Joseph Conrad's The Secret Agent: A Simple Tale. Shrug. It kept me reading, but I can't say I liked it much. The characters all seemed cartoonish, although you do sympathize with and feel quite sorry for Stevie, the exploited, mentally retarded boy. I did not find his explanation of why terrorists would choose to bomb the Greenwich Observatory to be at all convincing, and was going to complain of being unable to suspend disbelief, until I learned that he based it on a real incident--a real incident for which no coherent motive or explanation has ever been found. Along the way I found a New York Times review that explained to me something I hadn't understood, that there really had been a huge number of "anarchist," terrorist, bombing attempts in that era.

I do remember seeing at a museum a replica of some specific "anarchist" bomb. The traditional iconic comic-book image of the spherical bomb with the fuse is actually a stylized representation of one, specific, real-life design.

Image
Image
Was this the one Saccho and Vanzetti were done for-- almost certainly erroneously? A horse drawn cart full of explosives, killed a number of people on Wall Street? And Emma Goldman's associate tried to shoot Henry Clay Frick?

There were any number of anarchist attacks in that period. The Secret Agent is tied into the battles between Czarist secret police and revolutionaries. In an echo of more modern events, sometimes Czarist agents provocateurs would stage incidents and attacks so that the local authorities would crack down on Russian exiles (especially Paris and London). In another twist, many of the Bolsheviks funded themselves by acting as Czarist informers (the records have been destroyed, but persistent rumours as to Lenin Trotsky and Stalin in this regard-- alter German secret agents would ensure the return of Lenin to Russia, to overthrow the Menshevik regime that had replaced the Czar-- easily forgotten that the Russian communist revolution was against Democrats, not against the Czar's dictatorship, which had already fallen).

JP Morgan was assaulted more than once from memory. The incident above and then in the 1950s by Puerto Rican separatists? Many died in that incident, too.

London of course has had waves. The anarchists in the 19th century (and the real incident at the Greenwich Observatory, a symbol of industrial progress and rationalism and British power, so a logical target) may have been in that case associated with Czarist agents provocateurs (remember Poland was also an occupied country then, so exile Poles were swept up i n all of this). But London also had in those days waves of IRA attacks, and the Suffragettes.

Winston Churchill made a political name for himself (grandstanding as always) ordering an army attack on a group of anarchists holed up with hostages in the East End. It is unclear to this day who they were and whether they escaped I believe, but there was a pitched battle in the streets -- rather like when the Patty Hearst kidnapping SLA was hunted down in LA in the early 1970s. There were a number of incidents with anarchists in late 19th/ early 20th century London.

London was again visited by IRA attacks in the 1950s. And then with the breakdown of government in Northern Ireland in the early 70s, by a brutal wave of bombings and shootings in the 1970s by the spinoff faction, the Provisional IRA (Provos)-- killing the founder of the Guinness Book of Records for one. Bombing Harrods and Oxford Circus. This spawned attacks on the Irish community in the mainland, especially after the Guildford and Birmingham pub bombings. This led the IRA to a policy of telephoned warnings before attacks- the delicate kabuki theater was to cause disruption, but not widespread death, thus avoiding the backlash against their co-nationals in England.

Besides various bloody incidents in the 1980s, including the murder of a couple of politicians, and the death of a number of Horse Guardsmen and bandsmen, with their horses, in bombings in Hyde Park (and Regent Park) the IRA assault flared up again with huge van bombs in the financial district in the early 1990s-- I was lucky to avoid these. These were incredibly destructive-- modern office buildings with their glass walls are like toys before a big car bomb. The 'flower pots' that dot City sidewalks are in fact bomb defences.

The most recent wave of terror, whose victims were honoured in a video image wall at the Olympic opening ceremony (but the US network cut away to its commentators, thinking US watchers would 'not be interested') was the 7th July 1995 bombings (the day after we won the Olympics for 2012). 56 people died-- of all different races and nationalities, many of them young people. It was a terrible day-- like the Blitz all over again. Tavistock Square that night looked like an air raid had hit it-- but even more people died underground.

The almost final suffragette attack was in effect a suicide one. Emily Davison threw herself in front of the King's Horse at Sanddown races. She had purchased a return ticket so we have no idea whether she intended to die. But she had previously planted a bomb at the Chancellor of the Exchequer's home (which killed no one) so we would brand her now a terrorist.

Her death brought out thousands of mourners (the King's Horse lived, but many years later, the jockey suicided -- so perhaps the other casualty of the event).

And somehow the tenor of the time seemed to change. What had been impossible suddenly became inevitable. World War I intervened, but the Suffragettes had won their cause, marching as the song goes 'Shoulder to shoulder'. When anyone plays 'Shoulder to shoulder' or 'Jerusalem' they are conjuring the spirit of Mrs. Pankhurst and her determined band of radical middle class ladies.

I do believe, looking at the history of 20th century Britain, that a great mistake of every enemy of Britain, from communist trade union leaders in 1970s to Mr. Hitler, was to arouse the British middle class woman to mobilization-- a force to be reckoned with. When they deem a state of affairs to be no longer acceptable, then it is changed.
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LadyGeek
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V

Post by LadyGeek »

I'm back to Sci-Fi: "Hellhole" - The Hellhole Trilogy (Volume (1 of 3)), Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson

A corrupt government sends someone in exhile to another planet. While he's plotting ways to get even, the colonists discover an alien civilization.

(So much for my attempt at book overviews. I liked the writing style and it keeps you wanting to read more.)
Wiki To some, the glass is half full. To others, the glass is half empty. To an engineer, it's twice the size it needs to be.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V

Post by protagonist »

LadyGeek wrote:I'm back to Sci-Fi: "Hellhole" - The Hellhole Trilogy (Volume (1 of 3)), Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson

A corrupt government sends someone in exhile to another planet. While he's plotting ways to get even, the colonists discover an alien civilization.

(So much for my attempt at book overviews. I liked the writing style and it keeps you wanting to read more.)
If you like sci-fi (especially cyberpunk), LG, read "The Long Run" by Daniel Keys Moran. It's one of the best sci-fi books ever. Really. Published in the late 80s, it has been in and out of print, very hard to find, and used copies have sold for over $200. But now you can get the e-book version for $5.99, and Amazon has some used copies of print versions at reasonable prices.

If you don't trust my opinion, read the outstanding reviews on Amazon- many have called it the best sci-fi they have ever read. It's definitely in league with Snow Crash (there are similarities...one cannot help but think that Neal Stephenson got some of his ideas from DKM), and easily as good or better than anything by William Gibson or Octavia Butler with a whole lot more humor.

If you buy the e-book version, buy it directly from the author instead of via Amazon....same price and he gets a bigger chunk of the pie. http://fsand.com/Store/tabid/198/ProdID ... g_Run.aspx

Here are the reviews on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/The-Long-Daniel-K ... 0553281445

I like everything I have read by DKM, some more than others....but The Long Run is his best, and is a sci-fi masterpiece..
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V

Post by LadyGeek »

^^^ Thanks!! :beer As soon as you mentioned Cyberpunk, I instantly thought of Snow Crash and several William Gibson novels (I have a few...). Then, I read your 2nd paragraph. :D

OK, it's on my list (right after I finish the Hellhole trilogy), but I've got to do these series in order. I'll start with Emerald Eyes. From Wikipedia: Daniel Keys Moran

Tip: Scroll down to the book list. The blue links marked ISBN are special keywords for the Wikipedia software. Those links will take you to a list of book sellers.

We use the same software as Wikipedia and do the same thing in the wiki here (several wiki articles have ISBN links): Book sources - just enter the ISBN number and hit Go.

Here's the one for Emerald Eyes: Book sources - Bogleheads
Wiki wrote: * AbeBooks
* AddAll
* Amazon.com (Using this link will result in a small referral fee for us. It does not cost you anything extra.)
* Barnes & Noble
* Book Depository
If you have a Nook, checkout the Barnes & Noble link. (They don't carry this one.)

Canadian residents should use the book source references from our sister Canadian site's wiki, finiki: Book sources - finiki, the Canadian financial Wiki
Wiki To some, the glass is half full. To others, the glass is half empty. To an engineer, it's twice the size it needs to be.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V

Post by protagonist »

LadyGeek wrote:^^^ Thanks!! :beer As soon as you mentioned Cyberpunk, I instantly thought of Snow Crash and several William Gibson novels (I have a few...). Then, I read your 2nd paragraph. :D

OK, it's on my list (right after I finish the Hellhole trilogy), but I've got to do these series in order. I'll start with Emerald Eyes. From Wikipedia: Daniel Keys Moran

Tip: Scroll down to the book list. The blue links marked ISBN are special keywords for the Wikipedia software. Those links will take you to a list of book sellers.

We use the same software as Wikipedia and do the same thing in the wiki here (several wiki articles have ISBN links): Book sources - just enter the ISBN number and hit Go.

Here's the one for Emerald Eyes: Book sources - Bogleheads
Wiki wrote: * AbeBooks
* AddAll
* Amazon.com (Using this link will result in a small referral fee for us. It does not cost you anything extra.)
* Barnes & Noble
* Book Depository
If you have a Nook, checkout the Barnes & Noble link. (They don't carry this one.)

Canadian residents should use the book source references from our sister Canadian site's wiki, finiki: Book sources - finiki, the Canadian financial Wiki
Emerald Eyes is the first of the Continuing Time series (sort of), and very interesting, very worth reading, but (IMHO) not nearly as good as The Long Run (which is why I suggested TLR first to get you hooked). I read The Long Run before Emerald Eyes (it took me nearly five more years to find Emerald Eyes, as this was all pre-ebay-amazon era!) and I didn't feel at a terrible loss reading them in that order. as there is much in The Long Run that recaps the events of Emerald Eyes without ruining it. But if you are a purist, and committed, yes, by all means start with Emerald Eyes. If you are buying it as an e-book, please buy directly from the author via his website. Friends don't let Friends shop at Amazon. I haven't read these books in over 20 years, but I imagine they probably would withstand the test of time (esp. based on recent reviews).

I just bought his latest in the series (the fourth), which he wrote after nearly a 20-year writing hiatus. I'll let you know what I think.
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