What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

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

Post by VictoriaF »

APE Author-Publisher-Entrepreneur : How to Publish a Book by Guy Kawasaki and Shawn Welch.

An excellent book: comprehensive, detailed, coherent, well-written. Unfortunately, it was published in early 2013 and by now many technical details are obsolete.

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

Post by bertilak »

VictoriaF wrote: Sat Sep 02, 2017 6:46 pm
bertilak wrote: Sat Sep 02, 2017 1:52 pm
bertilak wrote: Thu Nov 06, 2014 10:57 am The Moving Toyshop by Edmund Crispin. ... two of the characters play ... a game called "Detestable Characters in Fiction (that the author intended to be sympathetic)." Some of the their list:
  • Those vulgar little man-hunting minxes in Pride and Prejudice
So, I have embarked on Pride and Prejudice. I find it full of shallow characters (most of Elizabeth Bennet's family and friends) but "detestable" and "vulgar" probably overstate the case. Perhaps "shallow" will devolve to "detestably vulgar" as the book progresses.
Do you mean that the characters are shallow or that their descriptions are shallow? For example, a great author may masterfully describe detestable characters; and an inferior author may have shallow descriptions of characters whom he has envisioned to be intelligent and deep.

With respect to Jane Austen, I think it's the former. And I am not alone. Check out a book "Jane Austen, Game Theorist" by an economist Michael Chwe.

Victoria
Jane Austin sets the tone with her first sentence:
  • It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.
and does an admirable job of developing characters to play off of that. The women-folk apparently have a stronger belief in that sentence than the men-folk (well most of them anyway). This leads to the opinion of the (cynical male) characters in Crispin's book.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by Mike Scott »

The Physics of Everyday Things

An interesting quick look at the technology of things encountered in one day starting with an alarm clock.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by VictoriaF »

bertilak wrote: Sat Sep 02, 2017 7:06 pm
VictoriaF wrote: Sat Sep 02, 2017 6:46 pm
bertilak wrote: Sat Sep 02, 2017 1:52 pm
bertilak wrote: Thu Nov 06, 2014 10:57 am The Moving Toyshop by Edmund Crispin. ... two of the characters play ... a game called "Detestable Characters in Fiction (that the author intended to be sympathetic)." Some of the their list:
  • Those vulgar little man-hunting minxes in Pride and Prejudice
So, I have embarked on Pride and Prejudice. I find it full of shallow characters (most of Elizabeth Bennet's family and friends) but "detestable" and "vulgar" probably overstate the case. Perhaps "shallow" will devolve to "detestably vulgar" as the book progresses.
Do you mean that the characters are shallow or that their descriptions are shallow? For example, a great author may masterfully describe detestable characters; and an inferior author may have shallow descriptions of characters whom he has envisioned to be intelligent and deep.

With respect to Jane Austen, I think it's the former. And I am not alone. Check out a book "Jane Austen, Game Theorist" by an economist Michael Chwe.

Victoria
Jane Austin sets the tone with her first sentence:
  • It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.
and does an admirable job of developing characters to play off of that. The women-folk apparently have a stronger belief in that sentence than the men-folk (well most of them anyway). This leads to the opinion of the (cynical male) characters in Crispin's book.
This famous first sentence is a joke. Austen is making fun of women who aggressively pursue desirable men and rationalize their attitudes and behaviors by the men's own benefits. But there is also some truth to it: Englishmen in possession of good fortune had to think about managing their estates and having heirs.

The negative female characters chase men; the positive characters Jane and Elizabeth do not. It's significant that Elizabeth rejects a proposal from one of the most eligible men in the country. By today's standards, it would like rejecting a job offer from Google because the company has some questionable ethics.

It's also significant that Jane Austen herself has never married and chose intellectual life to domesticity.

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

Post by bertilak »

VictoriaF wrote: Sat Sep 02, 2017 7:24 pm
bertilak wrote: Sat Sep 02, 2017 7:06 pm
Jane Austin sets the tone with her first sentence:
  • It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.
and does an admirable job of developing characters to play off of that. The women-folk apparently have a stronger belief in that sentence than the men-folk (well most of them anyway). This leads to the opinion of the (cynical male) characters in Crispin's book.
This famous first sentence is a joke.
That joking tone is probably why I used the phrase "play off of." Instead of "joke" I would have said "satire" -- a type of joke but more subtle. It was NOT "a single man walks into a bar..."

I cannot, off the top of my head, think of a better "tone setting" opening line in any other book. There are other first lines that do set the tone quite well (e.g. Huckleberry Finn, Kim) but not nearly as poetically.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by LadyGeek »

How about:
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way—in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.
-- A Tale of Two Cities, by Charles Dickens

I read that book in high school and still remember it.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by VictoriaF »

bertilak wrote: Sat Sep 02, 2017 7:52 pm
VictoriaF wrote: Sat Sep 02, 2017 7:24 pm
bertilak wrote: Sat Sep 02, 2017 7:06 pm
Jane Austin sets the tone with her first sentence:
  • It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.
and does an admirable job of developing characters to play off of that. The women-folk apparently have a stronger belief in that sentence than the men-folk (well most of them anyway). This leads to the opinion of the (cynical male) characters in Crispin's book.
This famous first sentence is a joke.
That joking tone is probably why I used the phrase "play off of." Instead of "joke" I would have said "satire" -- a type of joke but more subtle. It was NOT "a single man walks into a bar..."

I cannot, off the top of my head, think of a better "tone setting" opening line in any other book. There are other first lines that do set the tone quite well (e.g. Huckleberry Finn, Kim) but not nearly as poetically.
You phrased it better than I: satire seems the right word.

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

Post by heyyou »

Just finished Cities of Gold by Douglas Preston, published in 1993. It is about the author's horse ride following Coronado's route into the Southwest US, 450 years after the original trip.

What John McPhee has done with geology on I-70 coast to coast, this author does similar with some Arizona history and geography. Not recommended unless you already know some of the territory, but if you do, it is a great book. Other than the author's travails at cross country traveling, it is fascinating to read his thorough research about both the old, and the more recent, history of the places along Coronado's route from the current border with Mexico, north then east in Arizona, to the Zuni reservation in New Mexico.
Last edited by heyyou on Sun Sep 03, 2017 11:19 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

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After recently viewing the eclipse, I really enjoyed reading American Eclipse by David Baron. It describes the preparations for and observations made by several groups of American scientists for the total solar eclipse that passed over the western United States in 1878. The personalities of the various investigators, including Thomas A. Edison, are really brought out well. It goes into a lot of detail concerning the questions addressed, techniques used, obstacles that had to be overcome, and how they dealt with success and failure. A subplot is the special difficulties experienced by women scientists of that era as represented by an all female team from Vassar led by astronomer, Maria Mitchell. The overarching theme is the emergence of American science on the world scene during the Gilded Age.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

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Whose Body?, by Dorothy L. Sayers.

An architect discovers a naked body in his bathtub, who is it?
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by Grt2bOutdoors »

LadyGeek wrote: Sat Sep 02, 2017 7:57 pm How about:
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way—in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.
-- A Tale of Two Cities, by Charles Dickens

I read that book in high school and still remember it.
The movie is good too.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by gkaplan »

This afternoon I finished Guilt by Association: a Novel by Marcia Clark

Los Angeles D.A. Rachel Knight is a tenacious, wise-cracking, and fiercely intelligent prosecutor in the city's most elite division. When her colleague, Jake, is found dead at a grisly crime scene, Rachel is shaken to the core. She must take over his toughest case: the assault of a young woman from a prominent family. With her tremendous expertise in the nuances of Los Angeles courts and crime, and with a vibrant ensemble cast of characters, Marcia Clark combines intimate detail, riotous humor, and visceral action in her debut thriller. (Edited from library catalog description.)

Marcia Clark, of course, is the former Los Angeles deputy district attorney who was the lead prosecutor on the O. J. Simpson murder case. She co-wrote a bestselling nonfiction book about the trial, Without a Doubt, and was a frequent columnist on legal issues.

This is very good, especially for a first time novel. I didn't think it would be after reading the first twenty pages or so. I think it was because Rachel talks in a certain way that is unusual on first reading. Once I got past the initial pages and became accustomed to the voice of Rachel Knight, I really got into the book. It could have used an index, however, with all the characters floating in and out of the story. I look forward to read the next Rachel Knight novel.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by jebmke »

I have read 2-3 of Marcia Clark's novels. They are pretty good.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by azurekep »

Just finished: Since We Fell by Dennis Lehane

Not your usual Lehane book but absorbing. I'd put it in the same genre as Gone Girl and The Girl on the Train in that it was a psychological journey with layers of deception. The deception, along with some far-fetched plot twists, also brings Harlen Coben to mind.

The protagonist, Rachel, is a former news reporter who worked the Haiti earthquake and other such stories and suffered panic attacks and became a shut-in before being drawn out by mysterious happenings involving her new husband.

Some have complained that the book's structure is disjointed -- with several subplots that didn't really tie together -- one of them being Rachel's search for her birth father. But they were all interesting enough, so I won't complain.

Recently read: Every Fear by Rick Mofina.

This is the second book in the Jason Wade series about a Seattle Mirror news reporter. He works with (and sometimes against) the police and FBI on a case involving a baby abduction.

Mofina has both the Jason Wade and the Tom Reed/Walt Sydowski series. The latter involves a San Francisco Star reporter along with an SFPD homicide detective. Both series are good.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by Nicolas »

LadyGeek wrote: Sat Sep 02, 2017 7:57 pm How about:
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way—in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.
-- A Tale of Two Cities, by Charles Dickens

I read that book in high school and still remember it.
That's a great first line I agree. But I didn't like the book. I do like Dickens, Great Expectations was good. But this novel became so annoyingly cloying partway through that I could not continue.

My favorite first line is Call me Ishmael from Moby Dick.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by reggiesimpson »

Between Them.....Remembering My Parents by Ford.
Particularly poignant if you are of a certain age (senior citizen), grew up with loving parents and seriously miss them now that they have passed.
Spoiler alert.....yes the tears will roll.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by ruralavalon »

House of Evidence, by Viktor Arnar Ingolfsson.

A man is shot in the family home Reykjavik, Iceland, where his father had been shot 30 years before. Police struggle to find the connection.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by telemark »

re: famous first sentences

My personal favorite is "You can't just die. You got to do it by the book.", even though technically that is two sentences.

(Casey Agonistes, by Richard McKenna)
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by DDubya »

Reading "Days of Rage" by Bryan Burrough. The now mostly forgotten story of radical bombings and murders in the 1970s by delusional radicals who thought revolution would follow in the wake of their actions. Highly recommended.
For fans of British mystery, I suggest Josephine Tey. Very original and well written. Her best are probably "The Franchise Affair" (1949) and "The Daughter of Time" (1951).
I have followed the BH forum for many years and I think this is my first post. A surprise to me that is on reading and not investments.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by azurekep »

DDubya wrote: Mon Sep 11, 2017 6:06 pm Reading "Days of Rage" by Bryan Burrough. The now mostly forgotten story of radical bombings and murders in the 1970s by delusional radicals who thought revolution would follow in the wake of their actions. Highly recommended.
For fans of British mystery, I suggest Josephine Tey. Very original and well written. Her best are probably "The Franchise Affair" (1949) and "The Daughter of Time" (1951).
I have followed the BH forum for many years and I think this is my first post. A surprise to me that is on reading and not investments.

Welcome :sharebeer
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by ruralavalon »

DDubya wrote: Mon Sep 11, 2017 6:06 pm Reading "Days of Rage" by Bryan Burrough. The now mostly forgotten story of radical bombings and murders in the 1970s by delusional radicals who thought revolution would follow in the wake of their actions. Highly recommended.
For fans of British mystery, I suggest Josephine Tey. Very original and well written. Her best are probably "The Franchise Affair" (1949) and "The Daughter of Time" (1951).
I have followed the BH forum for many years and I think this is my first post. A surprise to me that is on reading and not investments.
Welcome to the forum :) .
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by patngordo »

Just finished "An American Spy"

the third book in the Milo Weaver trilogy by Olen Steinhauer.

Great stuff.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by wilson08 »

The Man Who Owned New York
by John Jay Osborn, Jr.

A junior partner in a prestigious New York law firm
is on the trail of missing millions while trying to
settle an estate. Intriguing look at the inner workings
of a New York Law office.
By the author of The Paper Chase.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by bertilak »

Something I just picked up at Costco: Classic Horror Tales (World Cloud Classics), Editors of Canterbury Classics. The binding is described as "Flexibound" which is a soft, comfortable, leather-like binding. It is approximately 5x8 and at 454 pages is just over an inch thick. Unfortunately, no Illustrations. My only real complaint is that the print is rather small, but that's how they got so much into a conveniently sized book.

It was only $10.

Also available from Amazon at about the same price.

There are over two dozen horror stories by the best classic authors: Edgar Allan Poe, Bram Stoker, Arthur Conan Doyle, R.L. Stevenson, Ambrose Bierce, H.P. Lovecraft, Dickens, and others. I started reading from the beginning and so far have been through four stories, all quite good.

Winter is coming on and this is a good book to have lying around for an occasional late night, fireside read. It will help if the wind is howling outside! Even if it isn't, the stories I've read so far can make it seem that way.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by eucalyptus »

Two excellent books touching on American politics, both by academics. These are not quick reads penned by pundits; they are scholarly, but IMO very readable.

Political Order and Political Decay, by Francis Fukuyama, which includes his diagnosis of current problems with the efficient functioning of US government; and

Democracy for Realists, by Achen and Bartels, analysing why people vote the way they do, and debunking traditional theories of voter motivation.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by ruralavalon »

Entry Island, by Peter May.

A murder of the richest man on a tiny island in the St. Lawrence River, Quebec baffles a team of police sent from the mainland to investigate. This mystery is gripping.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by eucalyptus »

telemark wrote: Mon Sep 11, 2017 1:11 pm re: famous first sentences

My personal favorite is "You can't just die. You got to do it by the book.", even though technically that is two sentences.

(Casey Agonistes, by Richard McKenna)
More first sentences, and the paragraphs they introduce. There are so many possibilities.

Nabokov: "Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins. My sin, my soul. Lo-lee-ta: the tip of the tongue taking a trip of three steps down the palate to tap, at three, on the teeth. Lo. Lee. Ta."

Fuentes, Terra Nostra: "Incredible the first animal that dreamed of another animal. Monstrous the first vertebrate that succeeded in standing on two feet and thus spread terror among the beasts still normally and happily crawling close to the ground through the slime of creation. Astounding the first telephone call, the first boiling water, the first song, the first loincloth."
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by Fallible »

bertilak wrote: Fri Sep 15, 2017 11:03 am Something I just picked up at Costco: Classic Horror Tales (World Cloud Classics), Editors of Canterbury Classics. The binding is described as "Flexibound" which is a soft, comfortable, leather-like binding. It is approximately 5x8 and at 454 pages is just over an inch thick. Unfortunately, no Illustrations. My only real complaint is that the print is rather small, but that's how they got so much into a conveniently sized book.

It was only $10.

Also available from Amazon at about the same price.

There are over two dozen horror stories by the best classic authors: Edgar Allan Poe, Bram Stoker, Arthur Conan Doyle, R.L. Stevenson, Ambrose Bierce, H.P. Lovecraft, Dickens, and others. I started reading from the beginning and so far have been through four stories, all quite good.

Winter is coming on and this is a good book to have lying around for an occasional late night, fireside read. It will help if the wind is howling outside! Even if it isn't, the stories I've read so far can make it seem that way.
And Halloween is coming :twisted: and it's only $4.99 on Kindle. :D Thanks!
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by gkaplan »

When Ronen, an expelled Mossad agent, vanishes after a failed assassination attempt against a Hezbollah operative responsible for suicide bombings in Israel, Gadi, his former commander, must find Ronen before he harms both himself and his country.
(Description from library catalog.) Originally published in Hebrew as Duet b'Berut, Evan Fallenberg was the translator.

Mishka Ben-David was born in 1952 in Israel. He holds a MA in comparative literature from the University of Wisconsin and a PhD from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Ben-David served in the Mossad for twelve years, becoming a high-ranking officer, and he is now a full-time novelist living outside Jerusalem. He is the author of five bestselling spy novels and several other books, including novels, short stories, and a book of philosophy. His spy novels are being adapted for an international TV series. (Three of his five “bestselling spy novels” have been translated into English.)(Biography taken from book jacket.)

I suppose many will compare Mishka Ben-David with the American writer Daniel Silva. After reading this first book of Ben-David, I think the only similarity between the two is that they both write about a Mossad agent. I decided to read this book after reading an article about the author in The Guardian, a newspaper I usually do not read.

At times, perhaps because of the translation, the narrative was confusing, with the plot shifting from the operatives already on the ground in Beirut (Ronen and Gadi); to the Mista'arvim operatives going through intensive, one-day training in case they also have to helicopter in to Beirut to pull Ronen and Gadi out if necessary; to the Mossad heads making the final decision, often with political motivations, whether to send in the Mista'arvim operatives; to the wives of Ronen and Gadi. Sometimes, again perhaps owing to the translation, the narrative was confusing, since it was not always clear just who was speaking to whom. I initially gave this a five-star review; however, on second thought, because of the confusing narrative at times, I lowered my rating to four stars; nevertheless, despite sometimes confusing narration, the I look forward to reading the next book in this series.
Last edited by gkaplan on Sun Sep 17, 2017 1:20 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by Lobster »

Benjamin Franklin: An American Life - Walter Isaacson
Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power - Jon Meacham

Two fantastic reads about two founding fathers committed to democracy and establishing America on strong principles of freedom and the right of man to govern himself. Isaacson's style is better at developing characters and relationships and therefore had a stronger narrative, but both were fascinating and worthwhile, in particular during these interesting times.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by TimDex »

E.C. Williams has just put his fourth book in the Westerly Gales series, Assault on Zanzibar, on amazon, kindle version.

Good series. Post-apocalyptic wars at sea by cultures regaining the the art and science of seafaring. If you like C.S. Forester's series, I think you will like this.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by Sandtrap »

Chess Tactics for Kids, by Murray Chandler
How to Beat Your Dad at Chess, by Murray Chandler

My son has beat me 29 games in a row, usually takes a month to play one game.
So I either have to keep making excuses or get better.
:D
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by MP173 »

Lawrence Block's "Make Out with Murder" which is the third Chip Harrison novel.

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

Post by Petrocelli »

I just finished "Stingray Afternoon". A great memoir of growing up in the 1970s. Highly recommended.

I just started reading "The Swamp Fox", which is about Francis Marion and the American Revolution in the Carolinas. Looks promising.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by azurekep »

Recently finished:

1. Supreme Justice by Phillip Margolin
Brad Miller and Dana Cutler series, Book 2

Brad is clerking for a Justice on the Supreme Court who is the victim of an assassination attempt. The hit appeared related to a death row case in Oregon and a "ghost ship" tied to TLA (three-letter acronym) intrigue. The good-guy characters are likeable and the plot is suspenseful.

2. Capital Murder by Phillip Margolin
Brad Miller and Dana Cutler series, Book 3

Brad is now a legislative assistant to a Senator on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. This is the weakest of the series so far. Not enough Brad Miller/Dana Cutler and not enough focus on the Senate. Instead, we have a jihadist terrorist plot in DC (other authors have done better), and a lame subplot involving a female defense lawyer in Oregon who falls in love with her serial-killer client.
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Artful Dodger
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by Artful Dodger »

The Paris Wife by Paula Mclain - My wife just finished this, and was actually reading while we were in Paris a couple of weeks ago. She really liked it, so I decided to read it, and enjoyed thoroughly as well. It is the story of Hadley Richardson, who at the age of 28 married a very young Ernest Hemingway just as he was beginning his writing career, and shortly thereafter moved with him to Paris in the early 1920s. The book covers their time there until the break up in their 5th year of marriage.

I enjoyed so much, I'm now reading Hemingway's A Moveable Feast, written very late in his life, but covering the same time he spent in Paris with Hadley. I also picked up The Sun Also Rises, the first novel he wrote during their time in Paris.

While on our trip, I read Danial Silva's Portrait of A Spy, which I think is the 11th Gabriel Allon book.
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bertilak
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by bertilak »

bertilak wrote: Fri Sep 15, 2017 11:03 am Something I just picked up at Costco: Classic Horror Tales ...

There are over two dozen horror stories by the best classic authors: Edgar Allan Poe, Bram Stoker, Arthur Conan Doyle, R.L. Stevenson, Ambrose Bierce, H.P. Lovecraft, Dickens, and others.
One of the "others" is Henry James. His story is Turn of the Screw (1898). I am just starting this one and got the strange feeling I knew the story! I know I never read it before. Then it dawned on me. This short story was the basis for the movie The Innocents (1961), which I have seen.

In case you haven't seen this movie it is one of the best Gothic horror movies ever made. It was directed by Jack Clayton who is often mentioned in the same breath as Alfred Hitchcock: Truffaut said The Innocents was the best movie made in England after Hitchcock left. It's available on Amazon Prime Video. Get the Deborah Kerr version if you want the real thing! (Turn of the screw has been put to film by others.)
Last edited by bertilak on Mon Sep 18, 2017 4:53 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Munir
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by Munir »

On Tyranny (2017) by Timothy Snyder. Short book, very informative, and easy reading.
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ruralavalon
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by ruralavalon »

Dodge City, by Tom Clavin.

This is an interesting history of Dodge City, located in Southwest Kansas near a ford over the Arkansas River on the old Santa Fe Trail, about half way between Leavenworth and Santa Fe. It began as a town to service nearby Fort Dodge and to supply buffalo hunters on the Southern Plains, and expanded with coming of the railroad to be a shipping point for cattle driven up from Texas after the Civil War. A haven for soldiers, buffalo hunters, cowboys, gamblers and prostitutes it put the word "wild" in the term "Wild West".

"A story was told of a despondent man riding on the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe line, a curious conductor tapped his shoulder and asked where he was going. 'To hell, most likely' the man muttered. The conductor responded, 'That's two dollars, and get off at Dodge City' ".

In addition to telling the stories (both fable and fact) of some of the cowboys, hunters, gamblers, and prostitutes the book focuses primarily on the lives of lawmen, in particular Wyatt Earp and Bat Masterson, who helped clean up the town in the 1870s.

The book includes stories about almost every legendary Western figure, such as Doc Holliday, Billy the kid, Buffalo Bill Cody, Wild Bill Hickock, Jesse and Frank James etc.

Wyatt Earp and his brothers were later involved in the "gunfight at the OK Corral" in Tombstone, Arizona in 1881. After trying mining, gambling or real estate ventures in places like Alaska, Seattle, San Diego, Colorado and Idaho, Wyatt Earp wound up in Los Angeles an unpaid advisor in the film industry, and died in 1929.

In 1905 President Theodore Roosevelt appointed Bat Masterson to be U.S. Marshall for the Southern District of New York, and then starting in 1909 Masterson worked the rest of his life as a sports reporter for The Morning Telegraph. He died in New York in 1921. Bat Masterson worked more years as a sports reporter in New York than he spent as a lawman in Dodge City, Kansas.

The fort is gone, along with the buffalo hunters and cattle drives. Dodge City is still there, population 27,000, the county seat for Ford County, Kansas.
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Koogie
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by Koogie »

Just back from holiday and read a few books in the RV we rented to tour Northeastern Ontario.

The King of Shanghai - Ian Hamilton. Book 7 in the Ava Lee series. She is a lesbian Chinese-Canadian accountant that specializes in collecting bad debts and breaking noses. Hamilton has reached the formulaic stage now but she remains a compelling main character and the Canadian settings are familiar and the Asian ones well dramatized. I hope he keeps the quality as high as the output. I understand it has been optioned for a film series.

Full Tilt: Ireland to India with a Bicycle - Dervla Murphy. I am a sometime bicycle tourer and people have spoken highly of this book. I think I would have enjoyed it 25 years ago but didn't now. It is set in the 1960s and the politics and descriptions of the countries are just to dated and irrelevant now. Gave up on it, which is rare.

The Year 1000: What Life was Like at the turn of the First Millenium - Robert Lacey. Only half way through but enjoying it so far. For some reason, it brings to mind when I first read Freakonomics.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by azurekep »

Last two books I read:

1. What Happened by Hillary Rodham Clinton

The meat of the book was good. It described the campaign and election from her POV.

The rest of the book was devoted to other things , which could have been pared down by 80%. I'd recommend skimming the parts that aren't of interest.

The "other" things I personally found interesting were:

- the description of how she is coping
- the day in the life of a campaign
- the snippets about Bill
- their tastes in books


2. Woman with Birthmark by Hakan Nesser.
Book 4 in the Inspector Van Veeteren series

A woman embarks on revenge and methodically kills a series of men. Scenes alternate between her stalking her targets and the police investigation trying to solve the series of murders.
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Earl Lemongrab
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by Earl Lemongrab »

Linesman series, Space Opera by SK Dunstall.

viewtopic.php?f=11&t=146455&p=3546452#p3546452
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bengal22
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by bengal22 »

A Legacy of Spies by John LeCarre

The return of George Smiley. Very good so far.
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FreeAtLast
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by FreeAtLast »

bengal22 wrote: Sun Sep 24, 2017 9:07 pm A Legacy of Spies by John LeCarre

The return of George Smiley. Very good so far.
I just finished it. If you have been a Le Carre fan all along, then you HAVE to read his latest effort. I will not post any spoilers (at the very least, I'd be ejected from the Bogleheads forum immediately), but suffice it to say that Le Carre has tied up a number of loose ends from his previous novels which documented the activities of the Circus. In particular, he returns to "The Spy Who Came In From The Cold" and performs an extensive exegesis of his first bestseller. The author, who has become more and more philosophical in his approaching dotage, has also incorporated in his text some "apologias pro vita sua" for Peter Guillam, for George Smiley, and finally for Le Carre himself.

If you have never read Le Carre before, then do not read this book yet. First, read his previous novels in this order:

The Spy Who Came In From The Cold
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
Smiley's People.

Only then will you be fully prepared to understand all the details and references of "Legacy". Enjoy.
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azurekep
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by azurekep »

Just finished Don't Let Go by Harlan Coben

This standalone thriller involves high school kids that frequent the woods around a former Nike missile base. Two teens are found dead on a railroad track and a third is missing. 15 years later, the missing girl's fingerprints come up in connection with a murder, and one of the former teens is found dead, hanging from a tree. The story is told through the eyes of New Jersey Detective Napolean (Nap) Dumas who for 15 years has been mourning his dead twin brother (killed on the railroad tracks) and his missing love-of-his-life girlfriend whose fingerprints have now emerged.

Excellent thriller as always, though a bit darker than Coben's other books. Nap is a serious investigator on a mission vs the ordinary suburbanites who are the usual protagonists in Coben thrillers.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by jebmke »

Surrender, New York, by Caleb Carr
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Dave55
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by Dave55 »

Reading 2 at the moment:

"Don't Let Go" by Harlan Coben

"I Am Pilgrim" by Terry Hayes

Both excellent.

Last week I re-read "Tripwire" by Lee Child for fun and "Shrink Rap" by Robert B. Parker. Both top notch.

Dave
Last edited by Dave55 on Sun Oct 01, 2017 8:50 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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ruralavalon
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by ruralavalon »

Unnatural Death, by Dorothy L. Sayers.

A wealthy 72 year old woman suffering terminal cancer died peacefully in her sleep, her doctor wanted an autopsy and found nothing to show cause of death, Whimsey is sure it was murder even though there is no apparent motive for anyone to kill her.
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steve roy
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by steve roy »

"Dark Money" by Jane Mayer, a writer for the New Yorker.

It's about the current state of our U.S. political system, focusing on Charles and Dvid Koch. Well'-written and well-researched, I find it fascinating.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by Juliajones54 »

bengal22 wrote: Sun Sep 24, 2017 9:07 pm A Legacy of Spies by John LeCarre

The return of George Smiley. Very good so far.
Same here, very good so far! John LeCarre was interviewed on NPR's Fresh Air on Sept. 9th, worth listening to. He is 85 years old!
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