What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

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nymeria.stark
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by nymeria.stark »

rbwb wrote:Two Gary Paulsen books:

The Hatchet which is a "young adult" book that I was going to give to a nephew but thought I should read it first and I'm glad I did. I enjoyed it.

Winterdance which is about the author's experience racing the Iditarod. Hilarious and interesting. I'll be following the race the best I can next month.
Gary Paulsen is one of my all-time favorites, and Winterdance is one of his best. Makes me want to get a sled dog team. If you liked Hatchet, Dogsong is sort of a combination of the two in style.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by gkaplan »

nisiprius wrote:
gkaplan wrote:...I don't think this is unusual. Two crime writers I've read through the years are Ngaio Marsh and Sue Grafton. Marsh wrote from the mid-thirties up until her death in 1982. Her protagonist, Roderick Alleyn, never seemed to age. Likewise, Grafton started her Kinsey Millhone series in 1982 with "A" is for Alibi. Her latest, "Y" is for ....", is due out later this year. Kinsey seems to have aged about five years in that thirty-five year span.
That's a very conscious and open strategy, Grafton has mentioned it a couple of times and has stated that Kinsey ages one year per 2.5 books. So... she should have aged, and the "present time" of the books should have advanced, just about ten years from A to Y.

It's much more fun to have Kinsey going to the library and paging through Polk's Directory than just using Google. . . .
She also makes extensive use of the Haines Criss+Cross Directory. Notice, as well, she doesn't have a mobile phone or a personal computer. It's kind of like that television series The Americans, a series that I really like: No personal computers, no Internet, no mobile phones. Elizabeth Jennings and Philip Jennings make extensive use of pay telephones.
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d0gerz
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by d0gerz »

After the Prophet by Lesley Hazleton. Focuses on the 40-50 year period (630-680 AD) immediately after the death of Muhammad, exploring the origins of the Shia-Sunni conflict in Islam. Thoroughly researched, extremely compelling read.

Now started The Concrete Blonde by Michael Collins, 3rd book in the Bosch series. Season 1 of the TV series borrowed some from this book.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by gkaplan »

d0gerz wrote:After the Prophet by Lesley Hazleton. Focuses on the 40-50 year period (630-680 AD) immediately after the death of Muhammad, exploring the origins of the Shia-Sunni conflict in Islam. Thoroughly researched, extremely compelling read.

Now started The Concrete Blonde by Michael Collins, 3rd book in the Bosch series. Season 1 of the TV series borrowed some from this book.
You probably know this, but that should be Michael Connelly, not Michael Collins.
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mancich
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by mancich »

Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon, by Brad Stone. Very interesting read so far.
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Wildebeest
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by Wildebeest »

Reykjavik nights by Arnaldur Indridason.

A great read.

This is this the 10th book I have read of his and even while it may be depressing, I still find him the most interesting and worth while writer of crime fiction. This is only because Raymond Chandler has not written any books in the last 70 years and I while I like Micheal Connelly and John Sandford, they have written any any blockbusters recently.

Do I enjoy Jo Nesbo or Karin Fossum or Nakan Nesser, I do.

But Arnuldur Indrididason is special. Depressing but special.
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d0gerz
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by d0gerz »

gkaplan wrote:
d0gerz wrote:After the Prophet by Lesley Hazleton. Focuses on the 40-50 year period (630-680 AD) immediately after the death of Muhammad, exploring the origins of the Shia-Sunni conflict in Islam. Thoroughly researched, extremely compelling read.

Now started The Concrete Blonde by Michael Collins, 3rd book in the Bosch series. Season 1 of the TV series borrowed some from this book.
You probably know this, but that should be Michael Connelly, not Michael Collins.
:oops: Of course, thanks!
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Driver
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by Driver »

Learned Optimism by Martin Seligman. Eye opening.
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Blues
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by Blues »

Wildebeest wrote:Reykjavik nights by Arnaldur Indridason.

A great read.

This is this the 10th book I have read of his and even while it may be depressing, I still find him the most interesting and worth while writer of crime fiction. This is only because Raymond Chandler has not written any books in the last 70 years and I while I like Micheal Connelly and John Sandford, they have written any any blockbusters recently.

Do I enjoy Jo Nesbo or Karin Fossum or Nakan Nesser, I do.

But Arnuldur Indrididason is special. Depressing but special.
I'll have to give those books a look. My best friend through junior and senior high was from Reykjavik.
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ruralavalon
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by ruralavalon »

Bones of Coral, by James W. Hall.

A Miami fireman and EMT returns to Key West where he grew up, to look into the death of his father whom he hadn't seen in 20 years and to help his mother in the failing family business. This mystery is built around an actual cluster of multiple sclerosis patients in Key West which had occurred in the 1980s, whose cause was never determined.
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Accrual
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by Accrual »

Just starting 'Infinite Jest' by David Foster Wallace. Because I am not mid-20's enough!
gkaplan
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by gkaplan »

This morning I finished reading Ngaio Marsh by Kathryne Slate McDorman. This is a critique and interpretation of crime novelist and theatrical producer/director/actor.

Ngaio Marsh is considered one of the "Golden Age" mystery writers, along with Agatha Christie, Dorothy Sayer, and Margery Allingham. She drew extensively on her theater background, as well as her New Zealand heritage, and frequently incorporated these elements in her books.

This book, part of the publisher's English Author Series, is an engrossing, thorough, and very readable study of Marsh, with an extensive bibliography. The one criticism I would have is the less-than-comprehensive index, one that has several notable omissions and many undifferentiated page locators.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by spin_echo »

Lost on the Appalachian Trail: Kyle S Rohrig
B+, overall very good, but sometimes the author is a little "preachy". Also, the author does one thing at the end of the book that I found to be objectionable
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by jginseattle »

The Confidence Game, by Maria Konnikova. A fine book about the psychology of the con.

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/15/book ... .html?_r=0
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Robert The Bruce
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by Robert The Bruce »

I just finished Hero of the Empire: The Boer War, a Daring Escape, and the Making of Winston Churchill. It was excellent, I highly recommend it. Here's a link to the author on C-Span:
https://www.c-span.org/video/?417592-10 ... l-boer-war
I think I also heard her on Diane Rehm

I hope Valuethinker reads the new: Commander in Chief: FDR's Battle with Churchill, 1943 and perhaps offers his assessment.
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FreeAtLast
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by FreeAtLast »

Many, many years ago - when I was finally becoming adult-serious about properly educating myself concerning the history of the Marines in WWII - I inadvertently stumbled upon a piece of information that was recondite at that time. To wit, that the Leathernecks had employed native Navajo speakers to securely transmit critical military information during their multiple Pacific Ocean island battles. To this day, I remember almost falling out of my chair, convulsing with laughter, while contemplating the utterly profound and helpless confusion of the Japanese eavesdroppers of the Marines' wireless traffic.

And now, four decades later, I am recommending to you this book: Code Talker, by Chester Nez, Penguin Group (2011).

Standard Marine code/decode techniques took 2-3 hours for a "fairly simple" but very important message (for example, "Bring your 1st battalion to these coordinates
  • and attack to the northwest at 0430 hours, while arranging for the 3rd battalion to assist on your right flank. You may employ the 322nd tank platoon in this attack. We leave it to you to communicate and coordinate with the 6th Division's artillery regiment to obtain fire support." It does not take a lot of imagination to know that the Japanese continuously and scrupulously monitored the tropical airwaves for exactly this type of information.....and if they successfully decoded it on time, they would turn a promising thrust into a very bloody repulse. But what if you could transmit this message in 2-3 minutes with absolutely zero chance of it being deciphered?

    Unfortunately for the Japanese, when it came to the Navajo code, they might as well been trying to understand Martian. Not only are written examples of the Navajo language essentially non-existent, but understanding it also depends on subtle intonations, like Chinese dialects. They never had the slightest chance to interpret it and so most likely thousands of Marine lives were saved from 1942-45. The original 32 Navajo Marines had to create their talking code from absolute scratch (what in Navajo should stand for the English "A"? "B"? "C"?. etc.) and then move on to esoteric military concepts like "echelon". And, of course, how do you say tank in Navajo (eventually designated as "tortoise")? How about grenade ("potato")? Fighter plane ("humming bird")? The full code is listed in an appendix, as it has been declassified since 1968.

    Mr. Nez was the longest living original code talker and he is gone now. He and the other Navajo Marines were brutalized as children in US Native American schools where they were force-fed English and forbidden to speak their native language. Except that they never forgot their language nor their culture, which emphasizes the irony of both working together to protect the existence of multitudes of Non-Native Americans. The few original code talkers who survived into their 80's and 90's eventually received Congressional Gold Medals from President Bush (W.), which was the very least a grateful nation could have done.

    The book covers Mr. Nez's entire life, conveying not only his military experiences, but also his illuminating explanations of Navajo culture and customs. I once had a chance to meet some of the surviving code talkers over a decade ago, but could not attend their celebration due to illness. I have always deeply regretted missing that occasion. Therefore, I am so glad that I stumbled upon this history in my local public library and I hope you will find it as uplifting an experience as I did.
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bondsr4me
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by bondsr4me »

Charlie Munger The Complete Investor by Tren Griffin.

Going thru this book for the second reading.

Thoroughly enjoy it; I'll bet he's a real character to be around!

Highly recommend it.

Have a great weekend all you BH'ers.


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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by Tom1320 »

Just finished "Getting Risk Right" by Geoffrey Kabat. Subtitle is "understanding the science of elusive health risks". Subjects are: cell phones and brain cancer, endocrine disruption caused by enviromental factors, herbal remedies associated with serious illnesses, and HPV as causes for cancers.

The subjects are used as a backdrop to an interesting analysis of the science used to study them and how inexact even the best studies can be. I found many parallels with the science and studies used in finance and economics.
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a
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by a »

FreeAtLast wrote:..Code Talker, by Chester Nez, Penguin Group (2011). ..
Very interesting and enjoyable review. Thanks.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by nisiprius »

"El gran gigante bonachón," a translation into Spanish of Roald Dahl's "The BFG." I'm learning Spanish, and have read several translations of Roald Dahl's children's books because they are just about at the right level of Spanish for me, and because they are intrinsically interesting (haven't read the originals in English).

But this one was a big mistake.

See, in the English original the Big Friendly Giant speaks comically ungrammatical English, full of mixed-up words, invented words, and bad English grammar ("How wondercrump! How whoopsey-splunkers! How absolutely squiffling! I is all of a stutter.")The translator tries to render these, so in Spanish the giant speaks ungrammatical Spanish, full of mixed-up words, invented words, and bad Spanish grammar. Furthermore, the book is full of puns. He doesn't try to translate the puns, so it's up to me to figure out that "los turcos de Turquia saben a pavo" is a translation of "the Turks of Turkey taste like turkey."

In fact, I can't really do it--I have to read a couple of pages in Spanish and then go back and read the same pages in the original English.

A really tough one was "guisantes humanos," because the usual translation of "guisantes" is "peas," particularly "chickpeas." In this case, though, it's "beans." Human beans.

Still, it's so irresistible that I'm sticking with it.

Even for a book published in 1982 I can't quite believe the chapter entitled, in English, "Frobscottle and Whizzpoppers" ("Gasipum y popotraques"). Frobscottle is a delicious carbonated beverage in which the bubbles go down instead of up, so, instead of making you belch... I need to work up the courage to ask one of my Spanish-speaking language partners just where "popotraques" falls on a sale of vulgarity, I think it's a bit more explicit than "whizzpoppers." Apparently Disney has made a movie of it, I wonder how they handle the "whizzpopper" chapter.

(A review says: "The digital effects that render both the Giant’s person and his surroundings are exquisite. Instead of flash and noise, Mr. Spielberg and his visual team (led by his standby cinematographer, Janusz Kaminski) go for shimmer and glow, with the exception of a few bouts of loud, fluorescent flatulence called forth by the bubbly home brew that is the BFG’s tipple of choice." Well, OK then.)
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by FreeAtLast »

a wrote:
FreeAtLast wrote:..Code Talker, by Chester Nez, Penguin Group (2011). ..
Very interesting and enjoyable review. Thanks.
My pleasure, "a". As a dedicated bibliophile, I consider it an obligation to sing loudly the praises of a great read. :D
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Dantes
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by Dantes »

The Library at Mount Char by Scott Hawkins. Fantasy, a first novel published in 2015. Grim, cruel and then funny. Kept me up until nearly 1 AM; that hasn't happened for awhile.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by LadyGeek »

LadyGeek wrote:
LadyGeek wrote:The Three-Body Problem, by Cixin Liu. The first book of the Remembrance of Earth’s Past trilogy. It won the Hugo award and I can see why.

I posted my review here: Subject: Good Modern Science Fiction
The Dark Forest, by Cixin Liu. Book 2 of the Remembrance of Earth's Past trilogy. The first part seemed to drag a bit and was focused on building up background info to use later. "Later" occurred around 50% in. Wow, how does he come up with this stuff?
Death's End, by Cixin Liu. Book 3 of the Remembrance of Earth's Past trilogy. Like the second book of the series, the first part seems to drag. Then, it suddenly got very interesting. I like the education and perspective of Earth's history from outside the US.
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ruralavalon
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by ruralavalon »

The Yearling, by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings.

This is a classic novel about a year in the life of a boy in rural Central Florida during the last half of the 19th Century.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by Dantes »

Bernard Cornwell, The Flame Bearer. The tenth book in the Saxon Stories series ( or maybe its official series title is "The Last Kingdom"). An excellent read as are all the books in that series.
johnm160
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by johnm160 »

Currently I am reading (listening to the audiobook on my commute) Mr. Mercedes by Stephen King.
At home I just started reading The Coffeehouse Investor.
Bungo
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by Bungo »

The King of California, by Mark Arax and Rick Wartzman.

Very interesting history of the agricultural development of California's Central Valley, specifically the cotton-growing region centered around the (mostly former) Tulare Lake. This was once the largest freshwater lake west of the Mississippi River, but now the water has been diverted and the lake bed turned into farmland. There's not much left of the lake, except in very wet years, when it partially re-emerges. (Would be interesting to see it this year, one of the wettest on record.)

The book spans 150 years (1848 to 2000, more or less) and focuses on the J.G. Boswell company, not exactly a household name, but in fact the owner of what amounts to the world's largest privately owned farm.

It sounds like a dry topic but the authors do a great job, alternating between a lively narrative history and present-day (well, 1999-2000) conversations with the second-generation head of the firm, J.G. Boswell II, whom they persuaded to talk to them at length despite the family's general reticence around journalists.

It's very much to Boswell's credit that he agreed to participate, as this was clearly not going to be a hagiography; the authors admire the guy but certainly don't fawn over him, and they pretty much deplore the environmental consequences of the family's (and other growers') reshaping of the Central Valley to suit the needs of agriculture. Boswell's grudging involvement makes the book that much more interesting. To my surprise (it's been collecting dust on my to-read shelf for over a decade) this is shaping up to be one of the better history books I've read in recent years.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by Koogie »

Just finished two weeks vacation and decided to take a complete break from the internet/tv the whole time. So, read a lot... :D

Eye of The Red Tsar - I thought I got this from here but a search turned up nothing. A decent detective story set in Stalinist Russia involving the fate of the Romanovs. Enjoyed it enough to have the second book, The Red Coffin, already on hold at the library.

The Rook - a quite decent sci-fi/fantasy book. It has been reviewed by others in that thread on Bogleheads. Also enjoyed it enough to reserve the next one called "Stilleto".

The Solaris Book of New Science Fiction - I like short story anthologies. This was a good collection.

A Game of Thrones - fan of the tv show so decided to take the plunge on the books. GRRM does go on a bit (it sometimes felt like 800 pages of clothing descriptions) but enjoyed it overall. Funny when you read whole passages of dialogue that were lifted verbatim from one character and spoken by a different one in the tv show. Haven't decided if I am going to inflict the rest of the series on myself yet or not.
Last edited by Koogie on Mon Mar 06, 2017 11:46 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by gkaplan »

Koogie wrote:Just finished two weeks vacation and decided to take a complete break from the internet/tv the whole time. So, read a lot... :D

The Red Tsar - I thought I got this from here but a search turned up nothing. A decent detective story set in Stalinist Russia involving the fate of the Romanovs. Enjoyed it enough to have the second book, The Red Coffin, already on hold at the library.

The Rook - a quite decent sci-fi/fantasy book. It has been reviewed by others in that thread on Bogleheads. Also enjoyed it enough to reserve the next one called "Stilleto".

The Solaris Book of New Science Fiction - I like short story anthologies. This was a good collection.

A Game of Thrones - fan of the tv show so decided to take the plunge on the books. GRRM does go on a bit (it sometimes felt like 800 pages of clothing descriptions) but enjoyed it overall. Funny when you read whole passages of dialogue that were lifted verbatim from one character and spoken by a different one in the tv show. Haven't decided if I am going to inflict the rest of the series on myself yet or not.

Authors?
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by smurth2000 »

Flash Boys Michael Lewis. My third book from the same author after Big Short and Liar's Poker (in that order).
I remember the afternoon.....that afternoon, when Flash crash happened and wondered whether I missed out on any good chances, but after reading half of this book - I now realize it's a no-win game when it comes to stocks. What chance does an investor with a laptop/PC with 50Mbps/50Mbps internet connection living 300-400 miles away from NJ Data centers have against the HFT? Wow its mind-numbing the way a microsecond can be monetized.

My parents are right - "Time is money, don't waste time" - it is sooo true.

Michael Lewis is awesome - I am hooked. Any other recommendations (from another author) along the lines of Big Short, Liar' Poker, Flash Boys - I would be interested to pick up as my next read.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by Koogie »

gkaplan wrote:Authors?
Yes, they all had authors... :)

Eye of The Red Tsar -Sam Eastland
The Rook - Daniel O'Malley
The Solaris Book of New Science Fiction - various.
A Game of Thrones - George R.R. Martin.. ie: GRRM
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by Hankscorpio_84 »

I am listening to "Debt: The First 5000 Years" by David Graeber on audiobook. The first 5 chapters are kind of like financial anthropology. It is quite interesting, but also very in depth, not sure I could sit down long enough to read a hard copy.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by Mike Scott »

The Revenge of Analog: Real Things and Why They Matter
by David Sax

available in paper and digital :)
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by Earl Lemongrab »

Galactic Empires, edited by Neil Clarke. An anthology of short SF works in that general theme. Contains a short story set in Ann Leckie's "Ancilllary" universe, but not featuring any of the characters from the mainline.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by jdb »

d0gerz wrote:After the Prophet by Lesley Hazleton. Focuses on the 40-50 year period (630-680 AD) immediately after the death of Muhammad, exploring the origins of the Shia-Sunni conflict in Islam. Thoroughly researched, extremely compelling read.

Now started The Concrete Blonde by Michael Collins, 3rd book in the Bosch series. Season 1 of the TV series borrowed some from this book.
Just finished After The Prophet based on above review. Very interesting and worthwhile book to read, thanks dOgerz. Now reading a fascinating book, The New Taste of Chocolate by Maricel E. Presilla. A cultural and natural history of cacao and chocolate including of course recipes. Highly recommend to all chocoholics.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by MichaelRpdx »

The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón.

Set in Barcelona after the Spanish civil war the book follows a boy's search for an author whose books are being bought up and burned.
The writing is some of the best I've read in years. The story itself is hypnotizing.
The NY Times Book Review wrote:Gabriel García Márquez meets Umberto Eco meets Jorge Luis Borges for a sprawling magic show.

They aren't kidding or exaggerating.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by gkaplan »

Koogie wrote:
gkaplan wrote:Authors?
Yes, they all had authors... :)

Eye of The Red Tsar -Sam Eastland
The Rook - Daniel O'Malley
The Solaris Book of New Science Fiction - various.
A Game of Thrones - George R.R. Martin.. ie: GRRM
I think I've read all the books of Sam Eastland (and liked them). I've also read most of the books written under his own name, Paul Watkins.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by ruralavalon »

The Deep Blue Good-By, by John D. MacDonald.

A Ft. Lauderdale boat bum rescues damsels in distress. I had read most of the Travis MaGee series years ago, but this was not as good as I had remembered.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by ZeroWealth »

The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas.

I seriously cannot believe it took me more than three decades of reading to finally start in on this book, it's quite simply incredible and I can't wait to start in on Dumas' other novels.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by Tom1320 »

" Punching Out" subtitled One Year in a Closing Auto Plant by Paul Clemens. The author spent most of 2007 at the two million square foot Budd stamping plant in Detroit recording the closing, dismantling, and scrapping of one of the largest auto stamping plants in the nation.

He talks with employees, union reps, riggers, buyers of the equipment and just about anyone else affected by the closing. A quote that stands out to me was made by a former Budd employee that got a job with the rigging crew dismantling the equipment. When his first job was eliminated by the installation of an industrial robot, he said " Now I have to learn how to build machines". So he did. When his job was eliminated by the plant closing, he said "Now I have to learn how to UNbuild machines. So he did... :|
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by gkaplan »

Last night, I finished reading Scrappy Little Nobody by Anna Kendrick. She talks about the various aspects of her stage, screen, and dancing career. She should add writing to her credits, since she seems equally adept at that as she is at the others.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by azurekep »

I just finished "Stress Test: Reflections on Financial Crises" by Tim Geithner.

The book covers the 2008 financial crises and more. It starts with Geithner's disasterous first speech as Treasury secretary, which is painfully funny. Here's part of it.
It’s fair to say the speech did not go well.

I swayed back and forth, like an unhappy passenger on an unsteady ship. I kept peering around the teleprompter to look directly at the audience, which apparently made me look shifty; one commentator said I looked like a shoplifter. My voice wavered. I tried to sound forceful, but I just sounded like someone trying to sound forceful. Early on, I caught a glimpse of Wall Street Journal financial columnist David Wessel, and I could tell from his pained expression that I was in trouble. The President had raised expectations. I was deflating them.

Stocks plummeted more than 3 percent before I even finished talking and nearly 5 percent by the end of the day—not quite a crash, but not good.


Aside from the 2008 crisis, he covers the Emerging Market crises of the 1990s, the European crisis, the US debt ceiling crisis, Dodd-Frank, Basel III, and so on.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by Volkdancer »

I am reading "The Minister's Wooing" and "Oldtown Folks", for the second time this year, two stories by Harriet Beecher Stowe that are included with "Uncle Tom's Cabin" in the collection of the three stories by the Library of America. "The Minister's Wooing" was published in 1859 and "Oldtown Folks" in 1869 and each seems to be the writer's response to the stresses of the time at those points in American history in the idealization of 18th Century Colonial and Post-Revolutionary New England thought (with the focus on Massachusetts). The idealization aspect is one of two themes that interest me. The second, and more interesting, is Stowe's elaboration of the history and evolution of religious thinking as the mode of philosophy in the 18th Century and the major concepts developed by Jonathan Edwards and his successors such as the "elect" and the "unregenerate" vis-a-vis the Church of England/Episcopal Church. I find Stowe's account interesting not only for the light it sheds on the values with which I was raised in 1950s Midwest with parents from central Pennsylvania and South Alabama but even more intriguing as a model for understanding the current political discourse and the underlying social attitudes. I am fascinated by how deeply rooted modern thinking is in American history and how story telling by cautious observers like Stowe from over one hundred years ago can help one, or me, better understand the nature and continuity of ideas over extended periods of time, or at least two hundred fifty years or so.

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ruralavalon
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by ruralavalon »

A General History of the Pyrates, by Daniel Defoe.

The book describes in detail pirates, pirate cruises and piracy, focused on the early 18th century, based on interviews with surviving pirates, their victims/captives and other eye witnesses and on trial proceedings.

The language is ponderous, and the sentences run on, but the history is very interesting.
Last edited by ruralavalon on Sun Mar 12, 2017 12:56 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Blues
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by Blues »

"The Dry" by Jane Harper. An Australian crime novel.

Synopsis can be read here: https://www.amazon.com/Dry-Novel-Jane-H ... 1250105609
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steve roy
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by steve roy »

"Empire of Self", a biography of Gore Vidal, which I would call definitive. Profiles and analyses a lot of Vidal's large body of work and paints a multi-faceted portrait of the man.
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VictoriaF
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by VictoriaF »

steve roy wrote:"Empire of Self", a biography of Gore Vidal, which I would call definitive. Profiles and analyses a lot of Vidal's large body of work and paints a multi-faceted portrait of the man.
Thank you for the reference. I am curious about Gore Vidal, but have not read anything by him or about him.

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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by d0gerz »

Are You Smart Enough to Work at Google? by William Poundstone. (The answer is evidently not.) Focuses on tough interview questions asked at tech companies/investment banks etc. Some I couldn't understand even after reading the solution. This is not a quick read!

Just started Liar's Poker by Michael Lewis.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by Blues »

Wildebeest wrote:Reykjavik nights by Arnaldur Indridason.

A great read.

This is this the 10th book I have read of his and even while it may be depressing, I still find him the most interesting and worth while writer of crime fiction. This is only because Raymond Chandler has not written any books in the last 70 years and I while I like Micheal Connelly and John Sandford, they have written any any blockbusters recently.

Do I enjoy Jo Nesbo or Karin Fossum or Nakan Nesser, I do.

But Arnuldur Indrididason is special. Depressing but special.

Just started Jar City / Tainted Blood. Thanks again for the suggestion.
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Earl Lemongrab
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by Earl Lemongrab »

Currently reading Six Wakes by Mur Lafferty. A colony ship is en route to a star system, with a cargo of sleeping colonists and crewed by six clones, most of them criminals who get a fresh start on arrival. The advent of cloning and mind-mapping provides a sort of immortality for those that choose, but with many legal restrictions.

The entire crew wakes in the clone tanks, to a scene of horror - some of their own bodies brutally murdered, the computer logs wiped, and their mind-maps some 20+ years out of date, and the captain in medbay in a coma (under the law she should be "recycled" as a newer clone now exists). What has happened?
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