What have you read recently? 2009 -2020

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This is embarrassing. I just finished

Amazon.com: Surviving the Fog eBook: Stan Morris: Books

It's a free Kindle book.

What's embarrassing is that it took me a while to realize that it was "Young Adult Fiction," and by the time I did, I was already hooked into the plot. It had two of my favorite themes: (1) A world in which 95% or more of the earth's population dies off, and (2) surviving in the wilderness with clever solutions to problems.

It starts off with about 50 teenagers in a mountain camp. All the adults go off for supplies and never return.

7/10.
 
And I thought Winnie the Pooh was a financial book. Good read, though.
 
TromboneAl said:
...(snip)....
It starts off with about 50 teenagers in a mountain camp. All the adults go off for supplies and never return.
...
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Nothing to be embarrassed about IMO. I'd like to read the sequel where the adults come wondering back having survived bravely. Then they find that the some of the teenagers (some are missing) with terrible secrets they're trying to hide -- hints of cannibalism and descent into chaos and anarchy. Sort of the Zits comic strip on steroids :).
 
I finished up two ebooks on this latest trip

Fat, Forty and Fired by Nigel Marsh. A pretty entertaining read of a 40 year old British/Aussie advertising exec who took a year off to smell the roses and sample the ER life. I am positive that recommendation came from the forum, and I think the author was on the forum. Can anybody verify this?

The Heart and the Fist: The education of a humanitarian, the making of a Navy SEAL
By Eric Greitens.

This is a great book if you want to feel humbled, inspired, or think you have too many things going on in your life. Eric is a bright idealistic college student, who goes to Duke to study philosophy. During his summer he goes to volunteer at Bosnia, Rwanda, and Gaza (with Mother Teressa missions) and other garden spots. He then gets a Rhodes scholarship and goes to Oxford to get his PHd writing his dissertation on humanitarian aid policy. During this time he continues his travels and volunteer efforts to other places like streets of Bolivia, Calcutta, and Albania.

Early on in his humanitarian efforts he is told by a Bosnian man that while he appreciate all the good things that aid workers provided, what the US really needs to is protect people from the bad people who rape woman, and kill the men. By early 2001, reflecting on the mans request from years early Eric decided to become a Navy SEAL at the age of 26. Eric does a great job describing the joys of Navy SEAL training. He then gets deployed to other top tourist sites, Afghanistan, Fallujah,Kenya/Somalia, and islands in the Philippines tracking down Islamic terrorist.

After transferring to the reserves, he goes on to found a charitable organization. The Mission Continues, America’s leading organization for helping wounded and disabled warriors serve their country as citizen leaders here at home.

It says something about what remarkable life the young man has had by the age of 35, that he leaves out any details about his stint as White House fellow, teaching, Albania, marathon running, and very little about his personal life.
 
TromboneAl said:
This is embarrassing. I just finished

Surviving the Fog

What's embarrassing is that it took me a while to realize that it was "Young Adult Fiction," and by the time I did, I was already hooked into the plot.
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That's OK Al. While I was tootling around on those small planes last week I reread Alice in Wonderland on my Kindle. It's even better now than it was when I was four.

:)
 
Meadbh said:
That's OK Al. While I was tootling around on those small planes last week I reread Alice in Wonderland on my Kindle. It's even better now than it was when I was four.

:)
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Last year I re-read several of the Oz books by L. Frank Baum on my Kindle. I really, really enjoyed reading them again.
 
W2R said:
Last year I re-read several of the Oz books by L. Frank Baum on my Kindle. I really, really enjoyed reading them again.
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Hi W2R, I recall you mentioned before retirement (might be wrong on this) that you didn't do fiction. Are you turning over a new leaf in ER? ;)
 
Lsbcal said:
Hi W2R, I recall you mentioned before retirement (might be wrong on this) that you didn't do fiction. Are you turning over a new leaf in ER? ;)
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As before, the vast majority of the books that I read are nonfiction. I supplement these with some classics that are fiction, such as Moby Dick (the source of my signature line) and other fiction. I also read comedy and especially enjoy Dave Barry. I'd say there's a heavy fictional component in his books.

If I had to guess, I'd say 95% of the books that I read are nonfiction. If I said that nonfiction is all that I ever read and that I never ever ever read fiction, then I must have been having a brain cramp. :blink: Here is my original report in this thread about reading the Oz books.
 
Just read the 15th Jack Reacher book Worth Dying For by Lee Child. It was pretty good. Now starting on the 1000 page tome of The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson.
 
The Devil's Light, by Richard North Patterson. Pretty good standard issue Patterson thriller. Osama Bin Laden has commissioned a key follower to steal and use a nuclear weapon from Pakistan and our hero tracks it down. Trumped a bit by OBL's demise but not bad if you like these things.
 
WhoDaresWins said:
Lots of Civil War related materials in the bookstores this year. Being a biography buff, I just finished "Civil War Wives" (Carol Berkin), which gives an intimate overview of the lives of Angelina Grimke Weld, Varina Howell Davis and Julia Dent Grant. I think I might take a road trip down the Lincoln Highway before the snow flies again and visit the Gettysburg battlefield. It has been ages since I have been there, and I have never visited the Eisenhower farm at all.
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Back when I went to Lee-Davis High School and we used to play Varina in various sports I thought it was pretty funny, the husband/wife dynamic. Everybody I ever mentioned it to looked at me like I was an alien. I think I was the only one that was awake during the Civil War parts of History class.

Ronnieboy said:
Now starting on the 1000 page tome of The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson.
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I just went back and re-read the entire Wheel of Time series (12 books, app. 900 pages each) in preparation for Brandon Sanderson's last book writing for the deceased Robert Jordan. I was about 2/3 of the way through the series when I discovered he wasn't finishing it with this book. I was pretty unhappy, but finished the series and his new next-to-the-last book anyway. Amazon.com: Towers of Midnight (Wheel of Time, Book Thirteen) (9780765325945): Robert Jordan, Brandon Sanderson: Books Hopefully I can keep all the subplots straight long enough for him to finish the last one. I'd hate to have to start over again.
 
Best Business Practices for Photographers by John Harrington.

It's a good reality check for anyone contemplating turning a hobby into a vocation. The numbers are sobering and explain why a pro photographer must charge $3K+ for shooting a wedding, and he'd better deliver a fine product.

I'm not gonna quit my day job....
 
Slumdog Millionaire by Vikas Swarup

This fiction is called Q & A and now better known as Slumdog Millionaire after the highly successful movie. Highly recommended reading. For those who watched the movie and liked it, I say, do read the book - it's better. The writing is superb - fast, witty, gripping and awakening. You get angry about the injustices and the life of the underpriviledged in India and you cheer on the hero through his amazing adventures as a street-kid.
 

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Currently reading "Third-World America" by Arianna Huffington. Grabbed it at the library while looking for another book recommended here. Infuriating info, and sobering.
 
I'm reading a free Kindle book, Le Robinson Suisse, ou Histoire d'une Famille Suisse Naufragee (The Swiss Family Robinson, in French) by Johann David Wyss.

The idea is to read something in French that I wouldn't have to struggle with. With my knowledge of French being pretty rusty right now, I would require a dictionary at my elbow for many of the French classics. Even Dumas was more than I wanted to tackle right now. This is just right - - easier to read along at a reasonable pace without having to stop and look things up, and yet still allowing one to learn a little along the way.

So far, so good. One of the things I had on my list for retirement was brushing up on my French.
 
I read, The Unit, recommended here. Quite an interesting dystopian view. Well worth a read. Also finished Carte Blanche, Deaver's take on a Bond book - fun read.
 
W2R said:
I'm reading a free Kindle book, Le Robinson Suisse, ou Histoire d'une Famille Suisse Naufragee (The Swiss Family Robinson, in French) by Johann David Wyss.

The idea is to read something in French that I wouldn't have to struggle with. ...
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I'm impressed. I took French classes a few years ago and couldn't even get much into a French children's book. Found out I could get A's in class but have no natural language proficiency -- I think I'm low IQ when it comes to processing spoken language and remembering foreign words.
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Read The World According to Bertie . IMO this is McCall Smith at his best, very funny and a nice change from the world news. One should probably first read the earlier ones in his 44 Scotland Street series, starting with 44 Scotland Street
 
Lsbcal said:
I'm impressed. I took French classes a few years ago and couldn't even get much into a French children's book. Found out I could get A's in class but have no natural language proficiency -- I think I'm low IQ when it comes to processing spoken language and remembering foreign words.
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You'd think that living in New Orleans, I'd get plenty of practice in French. It's around me all the time! Well, sometimes, anyway. But the local French here is to Parisian French, as Hawaiian pidgeon English is to the Queen's English. By that I mean that our local French has words and phrases from other languages thrown in, and its own accent and usages and slang, so it is not really helpful in improving my schoolgirl Parisian French.
 
I just read Unbroken by Hillenbrand. It's very good. It's a story about a WWII hero and written by the woman who wrote Seabiscuit. I think anyone who likes a good story would like it. I don't want to give much away of the story.
 
Ally said:
I just read Unbroken by Hillenbrand. It's very good. It's a story about a WWII hero and written by the woman who wrote Seabiscuit. I think anyone who likes a good story would like it. I don't want to give much away of the story.
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I've never noticed so many reviews on Amazon and such a positive response. Will get in line at the library, I'm number 191 on the request list but there are 20 copies in the system :).
 
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