What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

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MP173
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by MP173 »

Hendricks/Pekkanen's "The Wife Between Us"...

I wasnt too impressed the first 100 pages or so and considered returning it to the library, then the first of many twists came into play. It held my interest until I realized the "hunted" was really the "hunter".

Really enjoyed the book. It follows the "girl" genre as it is called (not my term) following "Gone Girl" and the "Girl on the Train". I would imagine a movie will be forthcoming.

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

Post by WhyNotUs »

Put down "Don Casey's Complete Illustrated Sailboat Maintenance Manual". Resisting the urge for a different boat.

Picked up American War by Omar El Akkad, too early to tell, might be too much like reading the news :?
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by ruralavalon »

Tropical Freeze, by James W. Hall.

On Key Largo who is the real villain? Rogue FBI, human traffickers, or corrupt locals?
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by RagnarRahl »

Hetty: The Genius and Madness of America's First Female Tycoon.

Hetty Green was the richest woman in America during the Gilded Age. She inherited wealth but built it up herself. She was eccentric and very frugal. All in all a compelling story.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by CZjc1330 »

David and Goliath.
A series of loosely related chapters about very interesting topics and author Malcom Gladwell is erudite without being pedantic.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by dmk395 »

Basic Economics by Thomas Sowell. Solid book
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by Wildebeest »

Nate Silver's "The signal and the noise. Why so many predictions fail- and some don't".

Great book. I am at page 378 and he never mentions Benoit Mandelbrot and in passing remarks on "Fooled by Randomness" but reading one after the other, I learned so much and is the perfect accompaniment.

Why do I think it is a great book? There is much always I always wanted to know but never put the time and energy to do and Nate Silver did all the hard work for me .

It reminded me of Bill Bryson"s " A short history of almost everything". Another great book and I am so happy I read it.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by jebmke »

Prague Fatale by Philip Kerr
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by ruralavalon »

Cradle of Gold, by Christopher Heaney.

This book is a biography of Hiram Bingham, and the story of his locating the ruins of the Inca city Machu Pichu in Peru in 1911, his other expeditions locating other Inca cities, the arguments between Yale University and Peru over the ownership of the artifacts and human remains removed, and their eventual return to Peru. I thought this was very interesting.
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azurekep
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by azurekep »

bengal22 wrote: Sat Mar 03, 2018 9:01 pm
azurekep wrote: Sat Jan 13, 2018 8:55 pm Fire and Fury was the other book I finished reading. I didn't want to be the first to report. :)
I suspect book is a work of fiction for the most part.
In a recent interview, Bannon speaks to the veracity of the book. I mention it only because it's pretty clear Bannon was one of the main contributors.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by bengal22 »

azurekep wrote: Thu Mar 15, 2018 11:42 am
bengal22 wrote: Sat Mar 03, 2018 9:01 pm
azurekep wrote: Sat Jan 13, 2018 8:55 pm Fire and Fury was the other book I finished reading. I didn't want to be the first to report. :)
I suspect book is a work of fiction for the most part.
In a recent interview, Bannon speaks to the veracity of the book. I mention it only because it's pretty clear Bannon was one of the main contributors.
Bannon merely said that he would not deny anything. Nor did he confirm anything. While interesting, I found the book full of shoddy journalism and I would not take anything as true or false.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by Geno »

"Tanker Pilot" Lessons from the Cockpit

by Mark Hasara
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by EGARCH »

Diplomacy by Henry Kissinger

Catching up on some classic International Relations books.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by LadyGeek »

I removed an off-topic post which continued the discussion of "Fire And Fury". Please don't use a book review as a pretense to discuss political opinions or actions of political figures.

Further discussion of the book's content is off-topic (other than liking / disliking it with no details provided).
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by FreeAtLast »

'The Late Show" by Michael Connelly; Little, Brown and Co. (July 2017)

Connelly introduces a new protagonist, LAPD detective Renee Ballard. If you like the adventures of Harry Bosch, then you will have no problem enjoying this crime tale. Connelly is on top of his game in this one and Ballard is a very appealing subject. See if you can determine who the "bad actor" is before the denouement. I winnowed the choices down to two possibilities, so I will accept 50% credit. :wink: BTW - Connelly supposedly has another Ballard story coming out this year.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by Valuethinker »

https://www.amazon.com/Fate-Rome-Climat ... man+empire

The Fate of Rome: Climate, Disease, and the End of an Empire (The Princeton History of the Ancient World) by Kyle Harper

This is an amazing book. New archaeological tools, associated with a general massive scientific effort to map past climatic conditions, have given us the ability to sketch, at least in rough, the relationship between the natural environment and the Roman Empire. It's a story that's not been told (in one place), we tend to try to explain Rome, and its demise, on purely human factors (Edward Gibbon) and treat the natural environment as stable, when it was anything but.

The history of Rome cannot be separated from its natural environment. Evidence suggests it was the largest empire in human history up to that time: both in geographic area and population (between 40 and 100 million people depending on date and estimate). They were civil engineers of impressive skill and scale, not really rivaled again (in Europe) until the 18th & 19th centuries. But the expansion of Rome began when the Mediterranean climate was unusually benign, a trend which broke around 150 AD which is when the Roman Empire really reached almost its maximum extent.

The book eruditely discusses what the documentary evidence (scattered, incomplete) shows us about the Roman Empire and its series of great plagues: the Antonine Plague (probably smallpox, about 151 AD); the Cyprian one (c. 250-270 AD i.e. during the "Third Century Crisis" of the Roman Empire) and the Justinian one (541 AD and then for the next 2 1/2 centuries). It shows how it is quite plausible that these are related to climate cycles (although our ability to explain why a sharp cooling of the Mediterranean world around 500s allowed the Black Death to spread through rodents is not complete*) as well.

The Cyprian plague is connected to the rise of Christianity-- an obscure cult with a few thousand or 10s of thousands of adherents, in 250 AD, would become the religion of Europe and much of the Middle East.

And he makes a pretty good case that the end of Late Antiquity, and the genuine fall of the Roman Empire, is connected to Justinian's Plague. Followed by a brutal war between Persia and the Eastern Roman Empire, this led to the main powers in the Middle East, Constantinople and Persia, being totally exhausted, with populations restive from religious oppression and heavy taxation. The way for the Muslim conquest of the 600s (one of the great campaigns in all of history-- the speed which they overran from the Spanish border with France to the gates of India) was open.

To do so he discusses what the religious writings say, secular writings, what other archaeological information says, what we know, what we can infer, what we don't know. Ranges over the economics, geopolitics & administration of the Roman Empire.

This was an awesome book. My understanding of Rome and in particular Late Antiquity (roughly 300 AD to 700 AD, usual right hand bookend is rise of Islam) was vastly enhanced.

* if you ever read Rosen Justinian's Flea, which is a more popular treatment of the same topics (and excellent), then Harper makes a pretty good case the Black Death arrived via the Roman trading network in the Indian Ocean- -rats on ships. From memory, Rosen suggests it came up the Nile Valley.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by Valuethinker »

https://www.amazon.com/Implacable-Foes- ... acific+war

Implacable Foes: War in the Pacific, 1944-1945 1st Edition
by Waldo Heinrichs (Author),‎ Marc Gallicchio (Author)

Very readable history of the last half of the Pacific War.

The perspective is strategic-- from an American strategic perspective. In particular, the authors' thesis is that Roosevelt and Marshall were very worried re public opinion re military casualties in an invasion of Japan, and this affected US policy and strategy.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by lthenderson »

Just finished "Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania" by Erik Larson. I won't review it as I'm pretty sure it has been reviewed before in the previous 59 pages of comments but like other Erik Larson books, I found it an easy read and kept my attention throughout.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by ruralavalon »

Caribbean Rim, by Randy Wayne White.

In the Bahamas there are ancient ship wrecks, treasure, pirates and murders.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by DanMahowny »

The Great Depression, A Diary
by Benjamin Roth
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by BigOldBear »

My wife just gave me a copy of “Fat for Fuel” by Dr. Joseph Mercola. Guess she is trying to help my weight loss efforts :D
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by FreeAtLast »

'Friends And Traitors" by John Lawton, Atlantic Monthly Press (2017)

Here we have a new Inspector Frederick Troy story, and it's a doozy. Troy dodges an assassin's bullets, is jailed under suspicion of murder, is rigorously investigated concerning his loyalty to Britain by MI5, while all the time trying to discover the actual traitor (mole) in Her Majesty's Government. It should be no surprise to anybody that Troy is willing to resort to, shall we say, "extralegal means" to achieve his version of justice. Note: It would be very helpful to have read several of the previous Troy novels before starting on this one, in particular "A Lily Of The Field" (2010).
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by Geno »

Tanker Pilot
Lessons from the Cockpit
by Mark Hasara
If you are successful, you will win some false friends and some true enemies; Succeed anyway.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by ruralavalon »

Mojito Monkey, by Adam J. Katz.

Sarasota Florida is plagued by a series of dognappings, and infomercials from a shady real estate speculator selling courses in how to invest with no money down.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by lthenderson »

Just finished "Pancakes In Paris: Living the American Dream In France" by Craig Carlson

It is the story of how Mr. Carlson realized one day that the thing he missed the most about America when in France was the breakfast and quit his L.A. filming career to pursue starting a restaurant in Paris that served American breakfasts. He now owns a chain of restaurants in Paris called "Breakfast In America."

The book is well written and what I call a quick read. He doesn't go into the nitty gritty details but tells you enough along the way to maintain your rapt attention.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by pejp »

"What's the matter with Kansas" - Thomas Frank

It was published in 2005, but really resonates to this day. It's political, but not as partisan as you'd expect, particularly by today standards. Just an attempt to understand why people do the things they do.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by Artful Dodger »

The Redeemer - Jo Nesbo. This is the 6th (I believe) of the Harry Hole books by Norwegian crime writer, Jo Nesbo. I really enjoy his writing, and if you enjoy crime / detective fiction, I would recommend. I would probably read in order.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by ruralavalon »

The Last Days of the Incas, by Kim MacQuarrie.

This is a very interesting history covering the conquest by Pizzarro, the infighting among the Spaniards after the conquest, the Spaniard's puppet Inca rulers, the Inca rebellions against the Spaniards, and the explorations in the 20th Century, searching for the last capitol and outposts of the Incas, by Bingham, Savoy and Lee.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by Fallible »

lthenderson wrote: Tue Mar 20, 2018 11:39 am Just finished "Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania" by Erik Larson. I won't review it as I'm pretty sure it has been reviewed before in the previous 59 pages of comments but like other Erik Larson books, I found it an easy read and kept my attention throughout.
I read the book and one scene sticks with me: the lunch enjoyed by passengers on a warm, sunny day as the ship nears its destination in unusually calm seas. Then, within 20 minutes, the ship is gone and some 1,200 men, women, and children are dead or dying.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by Rhadamanthus »

Just started H.P. Lovecraft: The Complete Fiction. I haven't read much fiction in a while but I love cosmic horror so I'm finally going to the source!
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by lthenderson »

Population 485: Meeting Your Neighbors One Siren At a Time by Michael Perry

It is a book about a writer who moves back to his small rural hometown and joins the fire department and serves as an EMT when he isn't writing. A great memoir as he flashed back and forth between his family history and the history of those he cares for when they need help the most. As someone who also grew up near a small very rural town, it was a book I could really relate too. The town characters are all the same, only different names and slightly different stories. I will definitely be checking out other books written by Michael Perry.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by Texanbybirth »

"A Song for Nagasaki: The Story of Takashi Nagai-Scientist, Convert, and Survivor of the Atomic Bomb" by Paul Glynn, SM
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by rtr-molar-doc »

DanMahowny wrote: Tue Mar 20, 2018 6:11 pm The Great Depression, A Diary
by Benjamin Roth
If you read and like the book you posted, read "The Forgotten Depression" - James Grant. It is about the 1921 crash. Very very eye opening and I WISH all politicians would read and understand it.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by DanMahowny »

rtr-molar-doc wrote: Fri Apr 06, 2018 3:04 pm
DanMahowny wrote: Tue Mar 20, 2018 6:11 pm The Great Depression, A Diary
by Benjamin Roth
If you read and like the book you posted, read "The Forgotten Depression" - James Grant. It is about the 1921 crash. Very very eye opening and I WISH all politicians would read and understand it.
I just reserved "The Forgotten Depression" at my local library.

I look forward to reading it. Thank you.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by rtr-molar-doc »

I most recently read "The Hiltons"- Taraborrelli, "Lenin" - Sebestyen, "The Last Cowboy" - Ribowsky, "Sticky Fingers" - Joe Hagan, "Dereliction of Duty" - H.R. McMaster, "life" - Keith Richards, "Hillbilly Elegy" - JD Vance, "The Life and Time of Mickey Rooney" - Lerzeman and Birnes, "Citizens of The Green Room" - Mark Leibovich

All great reads. Obviously I read only non-fiction though. I read at least one book per week and usually listen to another on CD each week.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by rtr-molar-doc »

lthenderson wrote: Fri Apr 06, 2018 9:34 am Population 485: Meeting Your Neighbors One Siren At a Time by Michael Perry

It is a book about a writer who moves back to his small rural hometown and joins the fire department and serves as an EMT when he isn't writing. A great memoir as he flashed back and forth between his family history and the history of those he cares for when they need help the most. As someone who also grew up near a small very rural town, it was a book I could really relate too. The town characters are all the same, only different names and slightly different stories. I will definitely be checking out other books written by Michael Perry.
I actually know Mike personally and he doesn't live far from me. A great dude and his writing fun to read. He has a column in the Wisconsin State Journal every Sunday here in Wisconsin. Always good for some great belly-laughs. Mike's wife is a pure saint - hahaha. He knows it too!
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by lthenderson »

rtr-molar-doc wrote: Fri Apr 06, 2018 3:18 pm
lthenderson wrote: Fri Apr 06, 2018 9:34 am Population 485: Meeting Your Neighbors One Siren At a Time by Michael Perry

It is a book about a writer who moves back to his small rural hometown and joins the fire department and serves as an EMT when he isn't writing. A great memoir as he flashed back and forth between his family history and the history of those he cares for when they need help the most. As someone who also grew up near a small very rural town, it was a book I could really relate too. The town characters are all the same, only different names and slightly different stories. I will definitely be checking out other books written by Michael Perry.
I actually know Mike personally and he doesn't live far from me. A great dude and his writing fun to read. He has a column in the Wisconsin State Journal every Sunday here in Wisconsin. Always good for some great belly-laughs. Mike's wife is a pure saint - hahaha. He knows it too!
That's awesome! I happen to live two doors down from a well known romance novelist. I would rather live two doors down from Mike! I can relate to his writings much much more. I discovered that I already own Perry's book Truck so it will be read shortly.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by FreeAtLast »

"The Frozen Hours" by Jeff Shaara, Ballantine Books (2017)

Shaara writes historical fiction and in most cases I don't read that sort of stuff. But he really does his homework concerning the characters he writes about and the situations they find themselves in, so I am more than willing to accept the thoughts and conversations he imputes to them. This is a book about the infamous battle between the UN forces (mostly US troops) and the Chinese Communist army ("ChiComs") around the Chosin Reservoir at the beginning of the Korean War. In my prejudiced opinion, he presents the main players accurately. Douglas MacArthur was an almost senile, arrogant egomaniac who made only one excellent decision (the landing at Inchon) among many bad ones. Army General Ned Almond was an incompetent sycophant whose military decisions were almost always wrong. Marine General O.P. Smith made all the correct military decisions to salvage both the battle and his beloved First Marine Division. There's an extraordinarily dedicated and courageous British army colonel in this story who deserves the portrayal he receives.

If you want to understand the Korean War, this novel is a great place to start. It's not for the faint of heart, though; the battle was unbelievably brutal and pitiless for both sides and took place under horrific weather conditions. I starting shivering in my 72 degree apartment at about 100 pages in and never stopped until the finish. Maybe you should wait for July to read it.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by Broken Man 1999 »

Finished reading The End of Alchemy - Money, Banking, And the Future of the Global Economy by Mervyn King, former head of the Bank of England.

I was a finance major, so I enjoyed the book greatly. Though, I believe others would find the book very dry.

Mister King goes thru what led to the financial crisis in 2007-2008, and offers some ideas that sound as though their implementation would strengthen the world banking system. Unfortunately, few of is ideas have been embraced by banks or regulators, leaving the world banking system still exposed to problems. Not exactly a pleasure reading, so far as the message left with the reader.

Also finished reading Reckoning With Race - America's Failure by Gene Dattel. I'll just say there is a fair piece left to travel. I do appreciate the fact the author identified and discussed/cataloged the presence of a great deal of racism in the parts of the country whose residents have traditionally pilloried Southern folks. Not that presence of racism in other parts of the country excuses racism in the South or anywhere. I honestly had no idea of the steps the people who so fervently supported freeing of slaves had taken to insure that they were not exposed to the newly liberated. Interesting reading, for sure.

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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by cfs »

Currently reading "A Concise History of Portugal, Second Edition" (by David Birmingham). This is a loaner from my favorite local library. For sentimental reasons I have read several books about the Iberian Peninsula. This is a good refresher for my next trip to Europe, possibly landing in Lisboa and start moving north on the central route (stopping in Fatima and other places in my bucket) and keep moving north to Galicia, Spain via the coastal route. Good luck, y gracias por leer ~cfs~
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by Rhadamanthus »

I couldn't get into the Lovecraft, so I'm currently traveling and splitting my time between The Intelligent Investor (finally, and it's the hardcover re-print of the original 1949 edition) and The Horus Heresy (never played WH but I love sci-fi world building and decided to give the series a go).
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by Calli114 »

I bought the paperback Camino Island by John Grisham at the airport.
It's about the theft of priceless F. Scott Fitzgerald manuscripts from the rare books library at Princeton.
It kept me entertained, and I finished it literally about 30 minutes before getting back home - perfect!
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by MP173 »

"Since We Fell" by Dennis LeHane.

I am a big fan of LeHane and have wished he were more prolific in his output. I loved the Kenzie/Gennaro series and hopefully he brings it back.

This book left me feeling a little empty. Rachel is a 30 something former print/TV reporter who has no idea who her father is. Her search for him takes up 1/3 of the book, then she melts down on camera and suffers anxiety, becomes a recluse and ultimately marries a man who she had encountered years earlier. But, he is not who he claims to be and the book shifts from her dealing with anxiety (second 1/3 of book) to the roller coaster attempt to resolve her husbands identity and reclaim her life.

Not up to his usual standards with a pretty empty ending.

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

Post by Blues »

The Looming Tower by Lawrence Wright.

https://www.amazon.com/Looming-Tower-Al ... 1400030846
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by djpeteski »

ResearchMed wrote: Sun Feb 11, 2018 5:59 pm
Ricola wrote: Sat Feb 10, 2018 5:17 pm The Rooster Bar by John Grisham, I really enjoyed it.
I just didn't enjoy this as much as his earlier books, which I thoroughly enjoyed.

Also, without going into detail (obviously), I was rather disappointed in the ending.
There would have been an awful lot of loose ends just oddly left hanging.

RM
Agreed. I found Street Lawyer much better. I read them in succession and found The Rooster Bar far too hokey. I felt he need to decrease the amount of happenings or go on for about 300 more pages. It kind of felt like three projects mashed into one, then finished quickly with a deadline approaching. I also like Camino Island, I thought the description of the operation was quite good.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by wak »

"Billy Martin-Baseball's Flawed Genius"
by Bill Pennington
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by mrsbetsy »

Calli114 wrote: Thu Apr 12, 2018 8:20 am I bought the paperback Camino Island by John Grisham at the airport.
It's about the theft of priceless F. Scott Fitzgerald manuscripts from the rare books library at Princeton.
It kept me entertained, and I finished it literally about 30 minutes before getting back home - perfect!
Just downloaded this for my kindle. Hoping it will make the 12 hour airplane ride go faster. No pressure though. :D
Bungo
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by Bungo »

Blues wrote: Thu Apr 12, 2018 9:51 am The Looming Tower by Lawrence Wright.

https://www.amazon.com/Looming-Tower-Al ... 1400030846
Excellent book, one of the best I've read in the past few years. Looking forward to watching the miniseries on Hulu, and also to reading the (sort of) sequel, The Terror Years: From al-Qaeda to the Islamic State.

Just noticed that he also has a new book coming out next week, God Save Texas: A Journey into the Soul of the Lone Star State. A bit outside his usual wheelhouse, but it could be interesting. I'll wait to see some reviews.
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Blues
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by Blues »

Bungo wrote: Thu Apr 12, 2018 9:50 pm
Blues wrote: Thu Apr 12, 2018 9:51 am The Looming Tower by Lawrence Wright.

https://www.amazon.com/Looming-Tower-Al ... 1400030846
Excellent book, one of the best I've read in the past few years. Looking forward to watching the miniseries on Hulu, and also to reading the (sort of) sequel, The Terror Years: From al-Qaeda to the Islamic State.

Just noticed that he also has a new book coming out next week, God Save Texas: A Journey into the Soul of the Lone Star State. A bit outside his usual wheelhouse, but it could be interesting. I'll wait to see some reviews.
Thanks, Bungo.
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