What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

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

Post by KBREAMK »

Just finishing (by audiobook) Stay the Course and am now starting “The Bogleheads’ Guide to Investing!” I already read the Bogleheads’ Guide to the 3 Fund Portfolio. Yes, I’m late to the party but I’m finally here and learning all I can! Excited to say all of my investments are in route to Vanguard (from Merrill Lynch) where I’ll be putting what I’m learning into practice!
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ruralavalon
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by ruralavalon »

Going Dark, by James W. Hall.

In South Florida radial eco warriors plot to shutdown a nuclear power plant, while federal agents work at cross purposes to each other, and power company security employees conspire.
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MP173
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by MP173 »

John Sandfords- "Holy Ghost"....Virgil Flowers investigates shootings in a small Mn. community somehow tied to the appearance of Virgin Mary apperition.

Not as good as past books by Sandford.

ed
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FreeAtLast
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by FreeAtLast »

"The Big Fella", by Jane Leavy (Harper Collins Publishers 2018)

I am assuming that we have a significant number of baseball fans in this forum. If you are one of them, you are going to want to obtain a copy of this new biography of George Herman Ruth Junior. Leavy has really done her homework in documenting the Babe's life and times; I counted 78 pages of notes, interviews, and sources. The biography is weaved around an accounting of a nationwide barnstorming tour that Babe and Lou Gehrig embarked upon in 1927. In addition to lots of factual stories about Ruth, the book is also an accurate history of how Americans lived their lives in that tumultuous decade. A very engrossing read.
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ruralavalon
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by ruralavalon »

Lessons from Lucy, by Dave Barry.

Funny, self-help life lessons learned from his dog Lucy.
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Dantes
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by Dantes »

Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant - the relatively new annotated edition from Harvard University Press. Annotations are extensive, particularly about every named individual in the memoirs. Its a well-produced book, good paper, good page layout, reasonable type size. Good dust jacket, fairly blah binding.

I think this is the fourth time I have read this book in the last 50 years - beginning with a copy of the original Charles Webster 2 volume edition, and including the Library of America edition and a free ebook version on my iphone during a series of bus trips. Obviously I like the book. The annotations in this edition are interesting but not essential to the non-specialist.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by traineeinvestor »

https://www.amazon.com/Printers-Error-I ... 0062412310

Printer's Error - Rebecca Romney + J.P. Romney

A fascinating look at the history of printing and production of books. Unfortunately, somewhat marred by the author's adding frequent attempts at pre-teen humour to the text - really dragged down the quality of what is otherwise a hugely engaging read.
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ruralavalon
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by ruralavalon »

Dantes wrote: Tue Apr 09, 2019 5:39 am Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant - the relatively new annotated edition from Harvard University Press. Annotations are extensive, particularly about every named individual in the memoirs. Its a well-produced book, good paper, good page layout, reasonable type size. Good dust jacket, fairly blah binding.

I think this is the fourth time I have read this book in the last 50 years - beginning with a copy of the original Charles Webster 2 volume edition, and including the Library of America edition and a free ebook version on my iphone during a series of bus trips. Obviously I like the book. The annotations in this edition are interesting but not essential to the non-specialist.
Personal Memoirs U.S. Grant, one of my favorite books. He was his own best biographer.
"Everything should be as simple as it is, but not simpler." - Albert Einstein | Wiki article link: Bogleheads® investment philosophy
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by jebmke »

Say Nothing by Patrick Keefe
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by Cycle »

Lost City of the Monkey God by Douglas Preston

Delightful if u like exploration and archeology non-fiction. Reads like a novel.
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mak1277
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by mak1277 »

Two-thirds of the way through On the Road. I was really hoping for something inspirational, but thus far I think it's just crap.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by AllStarDaniel »

Just started Bogle's Stay the Course. RIP.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by Tycoon »

The Art of Invisibility by Kevin Mitnick
Emotionless, prognostication free investing. Ignoring the noise and economists since 1979. Getting rich off of "smart people's" behavioral mistakes.
jdb
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by jdb »

Just finished two fascinating histories which I admit that I skimmed through in parts. Sometimes just too much information. The Catalogue of Shipwrecked Books by Edward Wilson-Lee, being a biography of Hernando Colon, son of Christopher Columbus, and the wonderful largest library in the 16th century that he created in Seville. I am an unabashed fan of Christopher Columbus and now am a fan of his son. Recommend for anyone interested in that epoch or in libraries and book collecting. Though suggest first reading the classic Admiral of the Ocean Sea by Samuel Eliot Morison. And just finished Armies of Deliverance, A New History of the Civil War by Elizabeth Varon, an eminent history professor at the home of the new national championship basketball team. And it is a new take on the civil war, focusing on the growing public perceptions in the North as a war to end slavery and also focusing on the public perceptions of the conflict in the confederate states. Furnished many new insights into the conflict especially as to the role of media and public spokesmen and politicians in framing the conflict. Recommend for civil war fans.
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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

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Whiggish Boffin
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by Whiggish Boffin »

I finally finished David Hackett Fischer's Albion's Seed: Four British Folkways in America. It tells of the migrations of
1) the Puritans from East Anglia to New England;
2) the Cavaliers and their hierarchy of underlings from south England to Virginia;
3) the Quakers from the North Midlands to the Delaware Valley of Pennsylvania; and
4) the Scots-Irish from the border region of England and Scotland, and from Ulster in Ireland, to the Appalachian mountalns and points west.

The book came out in 1988, and still rings true. It is 972 pages, about half being end-notes. It covers each group's religion, language, food, courtship, marriage, occupations, building style, treatment of the elderly, power structure, and concepts of virtue, justice, and liberty. It explains a lot of historic and present-day American socio-political conflicts in terms of these distinctly English and distinctly different cultures rubbing up against one another. It notes that later immigrants tended to absorb the English cultural attitudes of the region they came to. Fischer intended to write, in similar depth, about the immigrations of these later arrivals. Regrettably, these books remain unwritten.

(I will have to buy a printed edition of Albion's Seed. The maps, tables, and lineage charts came through poorly on my Kindle edition.)

I was led to Albion's Seed by James Webb's Born Fighting: How the Scots-Irish Shaped America. I'm now starting on Thomas Sowell's Black Rednecks and White Liberals, which references Albion's Seed pretty often. I took a break from Albion's Seed to read Jordan Peterson's 12 Rules for Life: an Antidote to Chaos.
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Artful Dodger
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by Artful Dodger »

mak1277 wrote: Tue Apr 09, 2019 8:34 am Two-thirds of the way through On the Road. I was really hoping for something inspirational, but thus far I think it's just crap.
Beautifully written crap, though. I always think of this book when I see posts from Dean Moriarty.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by Wilderness Librarian »

Whiggish Boffin wrote: Thu Apr 11, 2019 11:22 pm I finally finished David Hackett Fischer's Albion's Seed: Four British Folkways in America. It tells of the migrations of
1) the Puritans from East Anglia to New England;
2) the Cavaliers and their hierarchy of underlings from south England to Virginia;
3) the Quakers from the North Midlands to the Delaware Valley of Pennsylvania; and
4) the Scots-Irish from the border region of England and Scotland, and from Ulster in Ireland, to the Appalachian mountalns and points west.

The book came out in 1988, and still rings true. It is 972 pages, about half being end-notes. It covers each group's religion, language, food, courtship, marriage, occupations, building style, treatment of the elderly, power structure, and concepts of virtue, justice, and liberty. It explains a lot of historic and present-day American socio-political conflicts in terms of these distinctly English and distinctly different cultures rubbing up against one another. It notes that later immigrants tended to absorb the English cultural attitudes of the region they came to. Fischer intended to write, in similar depth, about the immigrations of these later arrivals. Regrettably, these books remain unwritten.

(I will have to buy a printed edition of Albion's Seed. The maps, tables, and lineage charts came through poorly on my Kindle edition.)

I was led to Albion's Seed by James Webb's Born Fighting: How the Scots-Irish Shaped America. I'm now starting on Thomas Sowell's Black Rednecks and White Liberals, which references Albion's Seed pretty often. I took a break from Albion's Seed to read Jordan Peterson's 12 Rules for Life: an Antidote to Chaos.
Thank you for this summary. My mother left behind a paperback copy of Albion's Seed when she passed away. I decided to keep this one until I had time to at least skim and read key sections. It stuck out on the bookshelf not only because of its size but because it was so different than most of her collection ( short stories poetry and award worthy recent fiction) and my own preferences (science & nature & western history). I decided this must make it significant for both of us.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by jdb »

Just finished The River by Peter Heller. Two college student friends who are avid outdoorsmen plan a several week long canoe and portage trip in northern Canada where they get dropped off by float plane. Do not expect to encounter attempted murder by another canoe group and raging forest fire. As someone who went with bride on 10 day canoe and portage trip in Canada many years ago this brought back memories. Without the attempted murder and forest fire. A fast paced adventure yarn, recommend to anyone who has been on or yearned to be on a Canadian canoe and portage trip. Good luck.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by ruralavalon »

Cycle wrote: Tue Apr 09, 2019 8:02 am Lost City of the Monkey God by Douglas Preston

Delightful if u like exploration and archeology non-fiction. Reads like a novel.
I also thought that it was a very interesting, adventure-archeology book.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by nisiprius »

Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife, by Mary Roach. Excellent.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by lthenderson »

God's Middle Finger:Into the Lawless Heart of the Sierra Madre by Richard Grant

Picked this one up on my kindle for a recent plane trip. It is about Richard's attempts to explore the heart of the Sierra Madre mountains of Mexico where the drug trade is the primary source of income.

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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by itsgot8 »

In Search of the Obvious by Jack Trout.
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crystalbank
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by crystalbank »

Just finished reading The Trap by Sir James Goldsmith, an English billionaire. Even though the book is written in 1994, it's remarkable how prescient the author had been about many issues affecting the world today (Globalization, wage squeeze, Eurozone, Brexit, GMOs, Industrialized Agriculture etc).

Irrespective of your political views, I think this book is going to be an eye opener.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by Blues »

Just finished "The Last Stone" by Mark Bowden. A somewhat tedious telling of an interrogation leading to the solving of a decades old abduction and murder. (Don't expect anything approaching Black Hawk Down.)

Now reading "Lethal White" the fourth installment of the Cormoran Strike series by "Robert Galbraith". I'm of mixed feelings on this series so will comment after I finish, or if I finish the current book.
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DanMahowny
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by DanMahowny »

Digital Minimalism
Funding secured
montanagirl
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by montanagirl »

Before the Dawn by David Reich. I'm up to History now, yay! I'm hoping he can knit history and pre-history together.

Though the 2006 book is already terribly out of date.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by bondsr4me »

I started re-reading Jack Bogle’s “The Clash of the Cultures”.

Happy Easter to everyone!
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by Dave55 »

DanMahowny wrote: Sat Mar 30, 2019 1:08 pm
forgeblast wrote: Fri Mar 29, 2019 9:03 am Can't Hurt Me by David Goggins amazing book, with challenges for personal growth. I cant say enough good things about this book.
Agree completely. AMAZING!
Thanks, just ordered it.

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

Post by jebmke »

Just starting Prussian Blue by Philip Kerr.

Just finished Say Nothing by Patrick Keefe. True story about a disappearance/murder during The Troubles in Ireland. I recommend it.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by Dave55 »

I just finished "The Wife", "The Ex" and "The Better Sister" all by Alafair Burke (James Lee Burke's daughter). These are all page turner's in the thriller mystery genre. Alafair's writing, narrative and plot lines are along the lines of Harlan Coben's stand alone books. I also liked the Ellie Hatcher series she wrote, which is about a NYC detective. I highly recommend any of her books.

Dave
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heartwood
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by heartwood »

I finished Confessions of an Innocent Man, a debut novel by David Dow. An OK read. A husband convicted of murdering his wife, his time in prison on death row, and ... Almost included a spoiler.

I just started John Sandford's Neon Prey, his 29th Prey novel. It's one of the new Lucas Davenport stories as a US Marshall. I like his writing here and in his other novels, e.g., Virgil Flowers, but he seems to have discovered vulgarity in a way that's off-putting to me. I'm a quarter into it and its got many headline crimes all rolled together. I do enjoy him tossing in words I can deduce but wind up looking up anyway, e.g., "I showed them my badge and told them I was undercover, investigating aggravated interstate mopery, and they said OK."

Years ago I noted that Sandford chews up pages sending his protagonists here, then there, then another place, then back to the 2nd, etc, w/o generally advancing the plot. So far he continues in that style. But I quibble; I enjoy reading them all.
shell921
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by shell921 »

Elevate: An Essential Guide to Life
byJoseph Deitch
jdb
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by jdb »

Now enjoying my new favorite book, Leaves Of Grass by Walt Whitman. I had never read. Saw at Costco in hardbound edition with larger font, just like the old publications I love to find at used book stores. To my surprise I am very much enjoying perusing the poems. Loved Song of Myself. And a much shorter one, Hast Never Come To Thee An Hour:

Hast never come to thee an hour,
A sudden gleam divine, precipitating, bursting all these bubbles,
fashions, wealth?
These eager business aims-books, politics, art, amours,
To utter nothingness?

Highly recommend to anyone who enjoys poetry or philosophy, or even better, philosophy in poems.
Sconie
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by Sconie »

Kayenta Crossing by Mark Sublette----a mystery which blends art and American Indian history up in the four corners area. If you like Hillerman and Doss, you'll like this series.
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ruralavalon
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by ruralavalon »

The Final Challenge, by Dale Van Every.

This is a history of the American Frontier west of Missouri after 1803 including exploration, trapping, and emigration.
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ruralavalon
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

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The Tale Teller, by Anne Hillerman.

This is a contemporary mystery involving missing Navajo artifacts from the Long Walk of the 1860s.
"Everything should be as simple as it is, but not simpler." - Albert Einstein | Wiki article link: Bogleheads® investment philosophy
black cat fortunate
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by black cat fortunate »

Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup about Elizabeth Holmes and Theranos. No idea nonfiction could be this enthralling.
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ruralavalon
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by ruralavalon »

Pioneers, by David MaCullough.

This is a history about the settlement of Ohio, principally the vIllage of Marrietta, beginning with the adoption of the Northwest Ordinance in 1787.

I did not enjoy the book as much as his earlier books on the Wright brothers, the Johnstown flood, and others.
"Everything should be as simple as it is, but not simpler." - Albert Einstein | Wiki article link: Bogleheads® investment philosophy
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by Dottie57 »

ruralavalon wrote: Mon Oct 29, 2018 4:21 pm
MJW wrote: Mon Oct 29, 2018 3:29 pm
Steeltoejoe wrote: Mon Oct 29, 2018 2:16 pm David McCullough is the best non-fiction writer I know. All his books are worth reading but the earlier biographies on John Adams and Harry Truman are particularly good. His storytelling drives each book narrative to really provide insights into the private as well as the public lives of his subjects. Both of these books deservedly won the Pulitzer prize.
I thoroughly enjoyed his biography of John Adams. I think many non-historians (and perhaps some historians as well) tend to view Adams as just the guy that served between Washington and Jefferson -- a mostly forgettable early president. McCullough's work illuminates the important contributions, flaws included, that Adams made to the founding of the US. I thought 1776 was a good read as well.

His Truman biography is still on my shelf waiting to be read.
David McCullough is not just for biographies. I also liked
The Path Between the Seas;
The Johnstown Flood; and
The Great Bridge.
The Johnstown Flood Was on of the first adult non-fiction books I read. It came in Mom’s reader digest book. I think I need to go to the library and check out the other two.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by telemark »

I'm reading Kipling, from Project Gutenberg.

Plain Tales from the Hills is exactly that, stories of the hill and plains country of India, plainly told. If you happen to be writing a textbook or manual on writing style, this would be an excellent source to mine for examples, from the proper use of metaphor
Little by little, softly and pleasantly, she began taking the conceit out of Pluffles, as you take the ribs out of an umbrella before re-covering it.
to economy in a character sketch
There was nothing good about Mrs. Reiver, unless it was her dress. She was bad from her hair--which started life on a Brittany's girl's head--to her boot-heels, which were two and three-eighth inches high. She was not honestly mischevious like Mrs. Hauksbee: she was wicked in a business-like way.
Also, if you are tired of waiting for a story ending that is currently twenty-five years in and still nowhere in sight, you can start each of these confident in the knowledge that the finish is only a few pages away.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by black jack »

The Company by Robert Littell - "a novel of the CIA"

Historical fiction, or thinly fictionalized history, following three young men from their recruitment into the CIA in the early 1950s to the end of the Cold War. A long book, but I was sad to reach the end.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by mancich »

blackcat allie wrote: Fri May 17, 2019 11:01 pm Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup about Elizabeth Holmes and Theranos. No idea nonfiction could be this enthralling.
+1 This was a great read
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by Blues »

"The Labyrinth of the Spirits" by Carlos Ruiz Zafón.

The fourth and final book in his "Cemetery of Forgotten Books" series.

Early on but appears to be well done thus far.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by ychuck46 »

"Goebbels: A Biography" by Peter Longerich. Helps me to understand where the mass media of today got its roots.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by Wilderness Librarian »

Most recent 3:

Horizon / by Barry Lopez. (Possibly his last - one online reviewer says he has acknowledged medical issues). In Horizon he returns to places he has visited and written about before. I really like his earlier works and this while not bad left me a bit disappointed. As in previous books his landscape imagery appreciation of the natural world and indigenous cultures are compelling. I thought the chapters on Australia and Antarctica were the best. Several other parts were too long, ponderous and sometimes frankly boring. I can't figure out why he started with so much personal family history.

The Invention of Nature : Alexander Humboldt's New World / by Andrea Wulf. Biography of an absolutely amazing naturalist and scientist most noted for his precise observations, depth and breath of data collection and world wide synthesis and correlations. Good book but like Lopez this is too long and parts are ponderous and uninteresting.

The Sun is a Compass: a 4,000 mile Journey Into the Alaskan Wilds / by Caroline Van Hemert. The author, a research biologist, chronicles a venture she & her husband took from Bellingham Washington up the inside passage through the Yukon Territory and the north slope of Alaska. Although having numerous equipment changes and food drops, they traveled by themselves and by muscle power alone - no motorized transport. Book was better than I thought it would be. The author does seem to spend too much time contemplating desire or non desire for having children. Other than this minor gripe I thought it was very interesting.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by montanagirl »

Right now I am reading Nomadland, and though it's entertaining and all, I am very disappointed in the shoddy treatment of retirement investing by the author. I know that's not the point of the book, but it's a little tiresome read that everyone's 401k just "evaporated" or "disappeared" in 2008, or that someone who's worked dozens of jobs files for SS at 62, pulls only $520, then is upset because Medicare starts taking Part B out at 65. Well I would have gotten a few more percentage points if I'd waited, but not much, WTH...the author just takes everyone's story at face value. There are no alternatives, the subjects' lives are predetermined.

I guess I expect an actual book to go a little deeper than an MSN Money clickbait story.

As for the lifestyle, I wonder how it holds up now as opposed to 10 years ago. Those RVs are not terribly secure.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by Finridge »

I am reading Seneca's On the Shortness of Life: Life is Long if You Know How to Use It. What is more valuable then money? Time! This book is about making the best use of your time. I highly recommend it.

"It is not that we have a short time to live, but that we waste a lot of it. Life is long enough, and a sufficiently generous amount has been given to us for the highest achievements if it were all well invested. But when it is wasted in heedless luxury and spent on no good activity, we are forced at last by death’s final constraint to realize that it has passed away before we knew it was passing. So it is: we are not given a short life but we make it short, and we are not ill-supplied but wasteful of it. Just as when ample and princely wealth falls to a bad owner it is squandered in a moment, but wealth however modest, if entrusted to a good custodian, increases with use, so our lifetime extends amply if you manage it properly. Why do we complain about nature? She has acted kindly: life is long if you know how to use it."
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI

Post by Dave55 »

"Last Man Standing" by David Baldacci. The main character is Web London, an FBI HRT (Hostage Response Team) member that is capitulated into several different cases. Very long story, but well done.

I also started reading "Sea Stories, My life in Special Operations" by Admiral William McRaven. Admiral McRaven (Retired) was a 4 star Admiral in charge of all the U.S.'s Special Forces at the end of his naval career. The short stories include his time in Seal Training and finding Osama Bin Laden mission. The stories are fascinating and well written.

Dave
"Reality always wins, your only job is to get in touch with it." Wilfred Bion
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