What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V

Questions on how we spend our money and our time - consumer goods and services, home and vehicle, leisure and recreational activities
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V

Post by jimgour »

linenfort wrote:
jimgour wrote:I am currently (re) reading "The Cat who Walks Through Walls" by Robert A. Heinlein. Read it 28 years ago.
I reread "Job: A Comedy of Justice" by Heinlein about every ten years. So enjoyable.
Well, now I am going to have to go back and read "Job: A Comedy of Justice" again!
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V

Post by chaz »

"Hot Mahogany" by Stuart Woods, my 23rd book by this terrific author.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V

Post by mickeyd »

Washington's Spies. Only about 1/2 way thru. Current TV show Turn is based on the book. Pretty good book and show if you are a history fan.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V

Post by stratton »

LadyGeek wrote:I just finished Cryoburn, by Lois McMaster Bujold, the last of the Vorkosigan series. I've got my husband reading the Vorkosigan series now, he's also on Memory and can't put it down. We both read sci-fi, which makes it difficult when we're both on the same series. We split on the sub-genres, though.
You'll be happy to know there is one more Vorkosigan book: Captain Vorpatril's Alliance which came out in November 2012. Only a few pages with Miles since this is Ivan's story.

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

Post by abuss368 »

I am thinking I am in the frame of mind to begin one of Jack Bogle's books that I have not yet read.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V

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The Quest For The Greenman
by John Matthews
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V

Post by LadyGeek »

stratton wrote:
LadyGeek wrote:I just finished Cryoburn, by Lois McMaster Bujold, the last of the Vorkosigan series. I've got my husband reading the Vorkosigan series now, he's also on Memory and can't put it down. We both read sci-fi, which makes it difficult when we're both on the same series. We split on the sub-genres, though.
You'll be happy to know there is one more Vorkosigan book: Captain Vorpatril's Alliance which came out in November 2012. Only a few pages with Miles since this is Ivan's story.

Paul
Thanks, I may come back to that later. The alternate universes (side-stories) sometimes seem like the author is stretching things just to crank out another book.

Laurel K. Hamilton's Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter series was like that. Absolutely fascinating; but after 10 or 12 books, it got to be "crank 'em out" same old stuff. For those who like vampires, you've never read a perspective like this. Start with Guilty Pleasures.

Also give her Merry Gentry series a try. This one is faery based sci-fi. I was reading both of these series at nearly the same time. Read one book, then switch to the other series until the next book came out.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V

Post by Sam314159 »

cid64 wrote:The Martian by Andy Weir. Don't know if this has been mentioned yet. Novel about a man who was left on Mars after a six person expedition to the planet was aborted. The other five escaped thinking he was dead. The story of his struggle to survive and the efforts of NASA to rescue him. Brilliant and scientifically accurate(as far as I can tell).
Just finished that. Good book.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V

Post by Fallible »

Hopalong-Freud and Other Modern Literary Characters by Ira Wallach. A '50s collection of parodies with the most hilarious saved for last, "Hopalong-Freud," a comedy of manners billed as a "play in three acts and one intermission" and a note that "All the action in this play takes place offstage." Being a true Boglehead and advocate of simple indexing, I read 'active management' into this line:

"I am unnerved by the suggestion
Of such a simple solution.
We must do something to get ourselves confused."

And this one:

"We must work fast! We have only fifteen
Minutes in which to confuse these people
And rescue them from the vulgarity
Of a commonplace solution!"

Thanks to Nisiprius for mentioning this book on another forum thread. :beer

Also finished up the second new volume of Walt Kelly's great comic strip, "Pogo." There are I believe more to come and they are well done and beautifully bound. Kelly drew the perfect lines of hundreds of characters, sometimes 10 or more to a single panel, but always returning to that one sweet, kind, almost-wise little possum for the "glue" that he said held it all together.
Last edited by Fallible on Sat Apr 12, 2014 8:29 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V

Post by protagonist »

LadyGeek wrote:^^^Already completed - I hate to say this, but you're the one that started me on the series. See: Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V (page 39 in this thread). Since then, my husband has also read the series.

Oops....how soon I forget. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed it.........
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V

Post by Blues »

"Enigma" by Robert Harris. (I may have read this one years ago and have read a few non-fiction books on the topic over the years.)
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V

Post by chaz »

"Orchid Blues" by Stuart Woods.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V

Post by SHB »

Other People’s Money - Charles Bagli

A story about the sale of Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village right at the peak of the market. It gives a great history of the development and then goes on to use the sale as a poster child for the bubble and subsequent credit crisis.

Although it’s not perfect and is definitely pro-tenant and anti-development. Since I work for a large real estate firm in NYC is made me cringe a bit with what I would call inaccuracies. Still a good book.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V

Post by denismurf »

A Nation In Pain by Judy Foreman takes a big step forward in not blaming the upsurge of opioid abuse on chronic pain sufferers who take opioid pain relievers to obtain a fairly normal life. In fact, she describes both chronic severe pain and drug abuse as enormous health problems in their own right that should be addressed as such, without the hysterical finger pointing characteristic of most articles and TV reports.

If you're looking for objective, conclusive studies on either drug abuse or pain, you won't find them here. In fact, according to Foreman, you won't find them anywhere, because they don't exist. The book explains why, in terms that don't heap blame on any people or institutions.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V

Post by oldzey »

My Ántonia - Willa Cather
The ONLY Investment Guide You'll EVER Need - Andrew Tobias
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V

Post by HardKnocker »

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

Post by ruralavalon »

Stocks for the Long Run (5th ed), by Jeremy Siegel. I hadn't read any earlier edition, and have just started this book. Thee book begins with an interesting analysis of the 2008 housing bubble and its collapse, and mention of previous market crashes and the amount of time taken to recover.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V

Post by chaz »

"Orchid Beach" by Stuart Woods.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V

Post by leehamster »

Stone's Fall by Iain Pears.

Fairly complex historical thriller with some financial market backdrop. Not quite David Liss-level education about historical financial markets, but a good read.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V

Post by Blues »

"The Son"...by Jo Nesbo.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V

Post by Fallible »

Read Michael Lewis’s book, Flash Boys, about high-high-high speed frequency trading and front-running and market-rigging and it’s a great read. He writes well of Brad Katsuyama who discovers the front-running and assembles a crackerjack team to first understand what’s going on (once again, as with subprime and CDOs, we learn how few on Wall Street understand how the stuff works that makes them wildly rich) and to then set up their own “fairness” exchange.

Along the way, the team discovers just how different they are from the deeply entrenched Wall Street money mindset and sometimes it’s amusing, sadly. When big investor groups are unable to believe Brad’s claim that he’s not interested in making a ton of money with his new exchange, he finally finds a way they will believe him. He stresses how much money he might make and says, “We are long-term greedy.” And it works as they begin to warm up to him (one of them now). Lewis writes here that Brad “spent six months running around New York faking greed he didn’t really feel, to put money people at ease.”

I thought of Brad largely as lucky to, for whatever reason, not care about BIG money the Wall Street way (a Boglehead?!), and I thought his IEX guys as mostly lucky for the chance to tap their considerable skills for a probable once-in-a-lifetime opportunity (although “fairness” on Wall Street seems a stretch), and to work for a shrewd visionary, wise-beyond-his-years, talented people manager like Brad. Thus, although Brad left RBC and put up much or most of his savings for his new venture, and others on the team most likely could’ve found or stayed in better-paying jobs, I didn’t see great sacrifices at this point in their young and already largely successful lives. And if IEX flops, I think their futures are quite bright, even if not on Wall Street.

What struck me most in the book came at the beginning, the “secret” tunneling of fiber optic cable from Chicago futures markets to New Jersey and the New York markets. The cost was $300 million - $300 million to lay cable in order to speed up trading by a few milliseconds. Just like with the financial crisis not too long before, you again have the millions, billions, and trillions of Wall Street, of the financial industry overall, but to what purpose, to what good for society overall?
"Yes, investing is simple. But it is not easy, for it requires discipline, patience, steadfastness, and that most uncommon of all gifts, common sense." ~Jack Bogle
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Post by JMacDonald »

[Post merged into here --admin LadyGeek]
Christine_NM wrote:One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

Finally getting around to this. It is a funny, sad, satisfyingly long folktale about family and community. It's even better than Love in the Time of Cholera.
Gabriel García Márquez died at age 87: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/18/books ... ml?hp&_r=0
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Re: What Book Are YOU Currently Reading? PART III (12/11/200

Post by BenBritt »

[Post merged into here --admin LadyGeek]

The Death of Santini by Pat Conroy. A really sad but talented family.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V

Post by dsmil »

Just finished "You Herd Me" by ESPN radio host Colin Cowherd, now moving on to "Every Shot Counts" by Mark Broadie.

I moved into my current town a year ago and am now realizing how great the library can be. "Every Shot Counts" was released a month ago and now I'm reading it for free! Having books on my bookshelf is always nice but if I really love this book than I can just buy it at a future date, when the price is lower.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V

Post by gkaplan »

I am several stories into the 2013 edition of The Best American Mystery Stories (BAMS). Among the contributors to this anthology are Michael Connelly and Joyce Carol Oates.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V

Post by chaz »

gkaplan wrote:I am several stories into the 2013 edition of The Best American Mystery Stories (BAMS). Among the contributors to this anthology are Michael Connelly and Joyce Carol Oates.
Michael Connelly is excellent.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V

Post by chuck-b »

I also enjoyed The Martian by Andy Weir. Workings of a scientific (and witty) mind.
Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans. (John Lennon)
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V

Post by Riprap »

In Saturday's (4/19/14) Wall Street Journal, there was an intriguing article about Dante's "Divine Comedy" as the ultimate self-help book.

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB1 ... 0159096702

I would be interested in hearing from those who have read the book.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V

Post by LadyGeek »

Immune (The Rho Agenda), by Richard Phillips. This is book two of the trilogy. It's more or less urban sci-fi, which takes place on Earth (so far) in the current time frame. Alien technology gets in the hands of humans.

Although this book is very well written and keeps you engrossed, it's too much politics and current affairs for my taste.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V

Post by Christine_NM »

Riprap wrote:In Saturday's (4/19/14) Wall Street Journal, there was an intriguing article about Dante's "Divine Comedy" as the ultimate self-help book.

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB1 ... 0159096702

I would be interested in hearing from those who have read the book.
I like the John Ciardi translation.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V

Post by Sriracha »

I read Frank Herbert's Dune ages ago and really enjoyed it, but never picked up any of the other Dune sequels ... until now. Just finished Dune Messiah and will be starting Children of Dune this evening.
Don't reach for yield.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V

Post by Fallible »

Christine_NM wrote:
Riprap wrote:In Saturday's (4/19/14) Wall Street Journal, there was an intriguing article about Dante's "Divine Comedy" as the ultimate self-help book.

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB1 ... 0159096702

I would be interested in hearing from those who have read the book.
I like the John Ciardi translation.
I loved his translations, and from college English Lit in the '60s, I still have my marked-up Mentor Classic copy of his "Inferno." The opening line of his "Translator's Note" shows so well his language sensitivity: "Where the violin repeats what the piano has just played, it cannot make the same sounds and it can only approximate the same chords. It can, however, make recognizably the same "music," the same air. But it can do so only when it is as faithful to the self-logic of the violin as it is to the self-logic of the piano."
"Yes, investing is simple. But it is not easy, for it requires discipline, patience, steadfastness, and that most uncommon of all gifts, common sense." ~Jack Bogle
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V

Post by chaz »

"Blood Orchid" by Stuart Woods.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V

Post by Blues »

"Destiny Of The Republic" by Candice Millard. A biographical account of the life and assassination of James A. Garfield.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V

Post by chaz »

"Hothouse Orchid" by Stuart Woods.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V

Post by Ged »

Currently I'm reading Mirror Dance in the Vorkosigan series by Lois McMaster Bujold. Sad to say but I find the stories involving Miles' clone rather contrived. The story arc is fine once you get past this.

I'm thinking about re-reading LeGuin's "The Dispossessed". The first time I read it some 35+ years ago I found it depressing, however it is such a great piece of work I think maybe I should re-read it. Things in the world and in my life have changed a lot since then so I may see it differently now.

The Dispossessed made LeGuin the first sci-fi author to have two novels that won both the Hugo and Nebula awards. The other was "Left Hand of Darkness".

Trivia: LeGuin was in the same high school class as Philip K. Dick.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V

Post by SuperGrafx »

Rich Dad / Poor Dad

Finally getting around to finishing it.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V

Post by Valuethinker »

SuperGrafx wrote:Rich Dad / Poor Dad

Finally getting around to finishing it.
As long as you are aware how many questions there are about Kiyosaki (sp?). His track record, his proposed methods.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V

Post by Valuethinker »

Ged wrote:Currently I'm reading Mirror Dance in the Vorkosigan series by Lois McMaster Bujold. Sad to say but I find the stories involving Miles' clone rather contrived. The story arc is fine once you get past this.

I'm thinking about re-reading LeGuin's "The Dispossessed". The first time I read it some 35+ years ago I found it depressing, however it is such a great piece of work I think maybe I should re-read it. Things in the world and in my life have changed a lot since then so I may see it differently now.

The Dispossessed made LeGuin the first sci-fi author to have two novels that won both the Hugo and Nebula awards. The other was "Left Hand of Darkness".

Trivia: LeGuin was in the same high school class as Philip K. Dick.
I must admit I did not find Memory 'contrived'. Any more so than the rest of the series. Brutal was the word that came to mind, but not contrived. Miles himself is a somewhat improbable character.

Leguin's father was also a famous anthropologist (I am not sure why he was famous but I do recall that he was famous or at least very well known).

http://www.ursulakleguin.com/BiographicalSketch.pdf

There: Arthur Kroeber

I didn't know that about Le Guin and Dick. Thank you. It strikes me that science fiction has had these moments and places of intense creativity, most notably 'the Golden Age' around NYC where you had Asimov, Heinlein, De Camp, Pohl, Kornbluth, Budrys, Bester (from memory) *and they all knew each other*.

Maybe there was another one with the 'New Wave'? Dick lived in Northern and then Southern California (arguably better novels from the first phase). Bradbury always lived in LA (from memory). Zelazny lived in New Mexico. Heinlein latterly lived in California (Santa Barbara? although to me his best work is not his later work) certainly when his stuff was more 'new wave-ish'. Harlan Ellison has always been based in SoCal AFAIK- -arguably Ellison's greatest influence has been on Hollywood (one for that Robocop lawsuit, which changed how Hollywood handles scripts; but also things like 'City on the Edge of Forever' and 'Logan's Run' (the TV series), which 'upped the game' on SF TV shows and made possible shows like 'Babylon 5' and 'Battlestar Galactica' (the remake)).
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V

Post by VictoriaF »

Valuethinker wrote:
SuperGrafx wrote:Rich Dad / Poor Dad

Finally getting around to finishing it.
As long as you are aware how many questions there are about Kiyosaki (sp?). His track record, his proposed methods.
Is not he the guy who converts rich dads into poor dads?

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

Post by Valuethinker »

Sriracha wrote:I read Frank Herbert's Dune ages ago and really enjoyed it, but never picked up any of the other Dune sequels ... until now. Just finished Dune Messiah and will be starting Children of Dune this evening.
I don't think the ones written by his son were to the same quality. In fact I didn't find DM and CoD as satisfying as the first one. I believe they made a tv miniseries out of the failed movie, which was more interesting than the movie (which was fairly risible although visually affecting).

However there is other Herbert work worth visiting: Whipping Star/ The Dosadi Experiment. The latter is not entirely satisfying but has Dune-like elements.

Dragon in the Deep (aka Under Pressure) is an old favourite of mine- -very early Herbert (might have been his first novel).
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V

Post by Valuethinker »

VictoriaF wrote:
Valuethinker wrote:
SuperGrafx wrote:Rich Dad / Poor Dad

Finally getting around to finishing it.
As long as you are aware how many questions there are about Kiyosaki (sp?). His track record, his proposed methods.
Is not he the guy who converts rich dads into poor dads?

Victoria
;-). ;-)

No evidence he ever made any money before the books got big. Some of the things he suggests in later books (IPOs etc.) are downright wrong.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V

Post by Valuethinker »

LadyGeek wrote:
stratton wrote:
LadyGeek wrote:I just finished Cryoburn, by Lois McMaster Bujold, the last of the Vorkosigan series. I've got my husband reading the Vorkosigan series now, he's also on Memory and can't put it down. We both read sci-fi, which makes it difficult when we're both on the same series. We split on the sub-genres, though.
You'll be happy to know there is one more Vorkosigan book: Captain Vorpatril's Alliance which came out in November 2012. Only a few pages with Miles since this is Ivan's story.

Paul
Thanks, I may come back to that later. The alternate universes (side-stories) sometimes seem like the author is stretching things just to crank out another book.

.
Actually I liked Captain Vorpatril's alliance quite a bit:

- insight into the character and mind of 'that idiot Ivan' -- you understand his defence mechanisms a lot better
- outsider perspective on Miles (completely infuriating and devious to a fault)
- a lot of references to my favourite novels, the first two (Shards of Honor/ Barryar) and what happened to the characters afterwards especially Alys Vorpatril. Watching characters like Gregor grow up and take over the burdens from Aral, Cordelia, Illyan ... Ivan is in the novel just a little bit younger than Cordelia was when she joined the series. The return of a Voruyter, surely one of the most intriguing minor characters
- more on the history of Barryar, the Cetagandan Occupation (aka 'The 9th Satrapy') and the changes it is undergoing-- gentrification of the old city for example- -how people remember the old wars and the desperation with which they were fought
- more insight into the mentality of the 'good guys' on Jackson's Whole, and the way they are basically antithetical to the Barryarans

Most of all that line 'the whole planet seemed to be undergoing retrofitting'. Surely Bujold has been a tourist in modern London and Europe?

Having read Cryoburn first, the reader has the uncomfortable feeling of knowing something the characters don't know and not being able to warn them.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V

Post by Blues »

"Suspect" by Robert Crais.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V

Post by chaz »

Blues wrote:"Suspect" by Robert Crais.
An excellent author.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V

Post by chaz »

"Severe Clear" by Stuart Woods.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V

Post by Blues »

chaz wrote:
Blues wrote:"Suspect" by Robert Crais.
An excellent author.
A new one to me. I wanted to find something in the genre (after finishing the Garfield biography) and got hooked by the canine connection. Certainly a fast read. I'm halfway through after a couple of hours.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V

Post by ruralavalon »

The History of King Philip's War, by Benjamin Church. The 340 year old language (and rambling sentences) is difficult to follow at first, but reading gets easier as you go long. Interesting history I had not known much about before. Its a narrative of the war between the Wampanoag & other tribes against colonists in New England in 1675-76. Church was a hero of the war, leading mixed forces of colonists and allied Native Americans in ranger companies in multiple raids and campaigns, and was responsible for the capture of King Philip in August 1676.
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oxothuk
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V

Post by oxothuk »

ruralavalon wrote:The History of King Philip's War, by Benjamin Church.
Interesting. There is a depression in Talcott Mt. near Simsbury CT that I've heard locals refer to as "King Phillips Cave", because he was reputed to have used it as a retreat.
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Blues
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V

Post by Blues »

oxothuk wrote:
ruralavalon wrote:The History of King Philip's War, by Benjamin Church.
Interesting. There is a depression in Talcott Mt. near Simsbury CT that I've heard locals refer to as "King Phillips Cave", because he was reputed to have used it as a retreat.
You may find "Mayflower" by Nathaniel Philbrick of interest as well. I've enjoyed his work since first coming upon "In The Heart Of The Sea" some years ago.
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