What have you read recently? 2009 -2020

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I just finished

Amazon.com: Soul Identity eBook: Dennis Batchelder: Kindle Store

on my iPod touch. Mildly entertaining, but mostly stupid (4/10). I can see why it was a free Kindle book.

But I found that I now prefer portrait mode reading with smaller text.

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Just finished
All the Devil's Are Here: The hidden History of the Financial Crisis, by Bethany McClean and Joe Nocera. This is a solid addition to the raft of books about the crisis. The Big Short is a lot more fun to read but if you are fascinated by the details of the arrogant and careless banksters who almost destroyed us this is a worthy addition to the list. It gets way down into the weeds about what went on where and how the various instruments of destruction were crafted. Interestingly, the crew at Goldman Sachs truly come out as the smartest guys in the room. They helped create the mess but saw the end game coming and covered their butts quite well - at the expense of their clients ("counter-parties in their words) and, ultimately us. Another interesting factoid I was not aware of was that less than 10% of sub-prime loans were to new home buyers. 90% were refinances and second homes. Lots of speculators financed by Wall Street's exotic derivatives.
 
Just finished The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson and started The Girl Who Played With Fire. Next comes The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest. My son gave me the three books by this author for Christmas. I am surprized that I really am enjoying them very much. Couldn't wait to start the second book after finishing the first. It seems the author finished the three and died of a heart attack.
 
If someone hasn't rad The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo yet, the Kindle addition is down to $5.00.
 
I am reading " The Guersney literary and potato Peel society " by Mary Ann Shalter . If any of the female forum members are looking for a nice read this is it . It is letters sent back and forth between a writer , her friends and a oddly formed Literary group . It's set in the end of World War 2 . It sounds boring and I even delayed starting it but when I did I was hooked . It is a feel good book and a nice easy read .
 
"Transition", by Ian M. Banks.

Weirdness, from multiple viewpoints. Very well crafted, deliberate writing. The pace may put some off. Some of the weirdness, particularly from the very odd viewpoints of a couple of the characters will certainly put others off.

The story involves an organization called The Concern, which may or may not have our best interests at heart, and the odd ways it meddles in the fate of others.

I think I'll have to wait several months and read it again. I'm pretty sure there are whole layers to this thing that I missed the first time through.
 
I just finished The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson. I thought that it was a little slow getting into it, but really enjoyed this book. Thanks to whoever it was that recommended it. I love this thread for getting new authors and books.
 
Moemg said:
I am reading " The Guersney literary and potato Peel society " by Mary Ann Shalter . If any of the female forum members are looking for a nice read this is it . It is letters sent back and forth between a writer , her friends and a oddly formed Literary group . It's set in the end of World War 2 . It sounds boring and I even delayed starting it but when I did I was hooked . It is a feel good book and a nice easy read .
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I read that book last year...really enjoyed it and was sorry to come to the end.
 
An Ice-Cream War by William Boyd. Almost every book I've read by this author has been thoroughly enjoyable. This is about two brothers on the eve of WW1. The family has a military background and one brother marries but then is called up to ship off to Africa. British East Africa is just above German East Africa. The other brother guiltily looks forward to going to Oxford and avoiding the military and his family. Boyd is good at understatement and events in his book are a lot like life, a bit unpredictable and requires the reader to guess at the meaning of some events.

Other good books by this author (might have written about them above) are: Ordinary Thunderstorms, Restless, and Brazzaville Beach.
 
Dreamer said:
I just finished The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson. I thought that it was a little slow getting into it, but really enjoyed this book. Thanks to whoever it was that recommended it. I love this thread for getting new authors and books.
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I also found it a little hard to get into but it was an excellent read .
 
Currently reading Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet because of the recommendation earlier in this thread. I am enjoying it. Very poignant.
 
Just finished "Fall of giants" by K. Follet. Took me some time. Too long for what it narrates. Wouldn´t recommend it. I am halfway of "Scat" by C. Hiaassen: Light entertaining read for children, in the style of "Hoot" and "Flush".
 
Just finished "The Cookbook Collector" by Allegra Goodman. Loved it! It is a very appealing contemporary romantic tale of two very different sisters, and I found it to be so witty and funny that I could not put it down.
 
Some months ago I picked up "Veiled Freedom" by Jeannette Windle in a pharmacy. I have a fascination with the Middle East and this sounded like an interesting contemporary story about a young American aid worker in Afghanistan. It was very well written with good character development, and almost unputdownable. Here are the reviews on Amazon.com:

Amazon.com: Veiled Freedom (9781414314754): Jeanette Windle: Books
 
HeLa

Just started "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks" by Rebecca Skloot.

"There's no way of knowing exactly how many of Henrietta's cells are alive today. One scientist estimates that if you could pile all HeLa cells ever grown onto a scale, they'd weigh more than 50 million metric tons-an inconceivable number, given that an individual cell weighs almost nothing."
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Her cells were part of research into the genes that cause cancer and those that suppress it; they helped develop drugs for treating herpes, leukemia, influenza, hemophilia, and Parkinson's disease; and they've been used to study lactose digestion, STDs, appendicitis, human longevity, mosquito mating, and negative cellular effects of working in sewers."
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I finished "The girl with the dragon tattoo " and thought it was great . Has anybody read the other books in the trilogy and are they as good ?
 
Moemg said:
I finished "The girl with the dragon tattoo " and thought it was great . Has anybody read the other books in the trilogy and are they as good ?
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IMO. the other two are just as good (if not better). The last two are really more like one book split into two volumes.
 
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