What have you read recently? 2009 -2020

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Marathoner said:
I'd also recommend the Harry Potter series for this. Great stories, obviously, and for whatever reason, I felt a little silly reading them in English.
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Oh good idea! I haven't read them in English, either, and I am sure I would like them in French. Thanks! :D
 
I tried another Lee Child book (Amazon.com: 61 Hours: A Reacher Novel (Jack Reacher) (9780440243694): Lee Child: Books) and I was enjoying it, until I got to what is apparently the main premise of the book:

A town's police force has to guard a witness, but because they signed a contract with the prison to have all cops drop everything and assist if there is a riot or breakout, they are concerned that they will have to leave the witness unprotected in that situation.
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That's just unrealistic, so I've given up on Lee Child.
 
T-Al, I felt the same way after reading a number of Clive Cussler's novels. They just got further and further from anything resembling reality.
I worry for Ted Bell, as I fear he's heading down the same path with the Hawke novels that I love dearly.
 
TromboneAl said:
I tried another Lee Child book (Amazon.com: 61 Hours: A Reacher Novel (Jack Reacher) (9780440243694): Lee Child: Books) and I was enjoying it, until I got to what is apparently the main premise of the book:
A town's police force has to guard a witness, but because they signed a contract with the prison to have all cops drop everything and assist if there is a riot or breakout, they are concerned that they will have to leave the witness unprotected in that situation.
​
That's just unrealistic, so I've given up on Lee Child.
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I think I have read all of the "Jack Reacher" books. They are definitely entertainment. There has to be *some* suspension of disbelief.

I don't believe that if we get attacked by aliens a Macbook delivering a virus to an interstellar species is going to cut it - but I still liked Independence Day :D
I am not sure there is a super spy/soldier/CIA/FBI/grunt like Jason Bourne but I liked some of those movies and books as well.

I don't want to analyze and think about a book, if I did, that means I would be reading a textbook :ROFLMAO:
 
Just finished reading "Blown for Good - Behind the Iron Curtain of Scientology." The big story in Clearwater right now is $400,000 in daily fines which were incurred due to an 8 year (?) delay in completing a major construction project, the Scientologist Super Power Center, in downtown Clearwater. I thought I would learn a little more about my "neighbors."

One of the most gut-wrenching books I've ever read.
 
Based on recommendations in this thread, I just read "Unbroken" by Laura Hillenbrand. A riveting tale! So amazing was Zamperini's resilience that I wondered whether he had been putting a few legs on the story. After all, what are the odds of making it through all those challenges? Anyway, I enjoyed it a lot. Thanks for the recommendation.

Following on the forced imprisonment theme, I am now halfway through "Under an Afghan Sky" by Mellissa Fung. This book was on my list and when first published a few months ago it was not available on Kindle. I checked again last week and there it was (but not cheap). Fung is a 30 something CBC reporter who was kidnapped while on assignment in Afghanistan in October 2008 and held in horrible conditions for over a month. She made it home alive and is back on TV, showing no obvious signs of PTSD. This week she has been reporting on Irene. This is her "Memoir of captivity". She has never openly said that she was raped, but describes sexual threats while closely confined with a captor, and I believe she was indeed raped. She is amazingly matter of fact, probably trying to be as objective as possible. Interspersed with the narrative are letters, written but never received, between Fung and her boyfriend, a reporter with another network, also based in Afghanistan. That was an angle I was unaware of. I will be watching both of them with interest from now on.
 
A Plague of Secrets by John Lescroart is an enjoyable entry in his Dismas Hardy series. Got it from the library electronically.
 
After all the discussion above about dystopian novels I finally read my downloaded ePub of A Canticle for Liebowitz. It is very good. It follows 1500 years of a Catholic Abbey dedicated to preserving writings (memorabilia) from our civilization after it was destroyed in a nuclear holocaust. Hopefully (and actually) these memorabilia will spark and/or support a renaissance. It is depressing and hopeful at the same time - well worth reading. The activities of the Liebowitzian Order reminded me of the description of the activities of Irish monks saving ancient memorabilia in the non-fiction book: How the Irish Saved Civilization.
 
I have been working my way through The Jackson Brodie books by Kate Atkinson. The first book "Case Histories" was strange but the following were much easier to follow ."One Good Turn ""When will there be good news ""Started early took my dog". The all take place in Scotland & England and actually they turned out to be a really good read .
 
I am in the middle of "The Emperor of all Maladies" by Siddartha Mukherjee. The author is an oncologist who started a project on the history of cancer and realized that he was describing a phenomenon with a personality. So it's subtitled "a biography of cancer". He has a very engaging writing style and the suspense keeps the pages turning. It has won a ton of awards, including the Pulitzer prize. Highly recommended.

The Emperor of All Maladies
 
My Kindle is the source of many good things. Lately I have been reading every Chekov story I could find. I am out of them, so now I started on Pushkin. My Kindle, some salted herring, and a glass of chilled vodka and life is good.

I hope we get some snow this winter.

Ha
 
Moemg said:
I have been working my way through The Jackson Brodie books by Kate Atkinson. The first book "Case Histories" was strange but the following were much easier to follow ."One Good Turn ""When will there be good news ""Started early took my dog". The all take place in Scotland & England and actually they turned out to be a really good read .
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I really like the Jackson Brodie books too. Atkinson's first book, "Behind the Scenes at the Museum," which won a couple of big awards, but I just can't get into its style.
 
I just love this thread. For the last week or so, I've routinely gone through every post, from post #1 Lsbcal to post #1064 Bestwifeever and took notes on the books/authors that I might be interested in. Checked out the authors and book titles on Amazon. All this "research" made me rather dizzy (as far as I can tell). But, not so dizzy that I'll be tempted to read S.I. Hayakawa again (sorry, Ha). Didn't vote for Hayakawa for U.S. senator, either.

So, "thanks" to all of you who wrote reviews.
 
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I recently listened to an audio version of "The Last Stand: Custer, Sitting Bull, and the Battle of the Little Bighorn" by Nathaniel Philbrick. I had previously listened to his book about the Mayflower. Both of these books were excellent. I listened to "The Last Stand" during my road trip to Chicago while I drove through the Dakotas. In the way back I visited the Little Bighorn Battlefield. What a great way to experience a book.
 
martyp said:
I recently listened to an audio version of "The Last Stand: Custer, Sitting Bull, and the Battle of the Little Bighorn" by Nathaniel Philbrick. I had previously listened to his book about the Mayflower. Both of these books were excellent. I listened to "The Last Stand" during my road trip to Chicago while I drove through the Dakotas. In the way back I visited the Little Bighorn Battlefield. What a great way to experience a book.
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I preferred the Readers Digest Condensed version - Please Mr Custer - YouTube
 
martyp said:
I recently listened to an audio version of "The Last Stand: Custer, Sitting Bull, and the Battle of the Little Bighorn" by Nathaniel Philbrick. I had previously listened to his book about the Mayflower. Both of these books were excellent. I listened to "The Last Stand" during my road trip to Chicago while I drove through the Dakotas. In the way back I visited the Little Bighorn Battlefield. What a great way to experience a book.
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I recently read this and thought very highly of it. I was particularly impressed by the way that he painstakingly explored the petty infighting, backstabbing refusals to work for the common good, and glory seeking self promotion by the various Army officers that led almost ineluctably to the debacle. It all sounded familiar to denizens of modern corporate America. Only now, hundred of people don't usually die as a result.
 
Gumby said:
I recently read this and thought very highly of it. I was particularly impressed by the way that he painstakingly explored the petty infighting, backstabbing refusals to work for the common good, and glory seeking self promotion by the various Army officers that led almost ineluctably to the debacle. It all sounded familiar to denizens of modern corporate America. Only now, hundred of people don't usually die as a result.
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They didn't mention the infighting in the Rangers talk. I found that part interesting and frustratingly familiar to present times.
 
If your interested in Little Big Horn from the Indian's perspective try "High Noon On The Greasy Grass" By Millig (I can't remember his first name).
 
Finished Amazon.com: The Company We Keep: A Husband-and-Wife True-Life Spy Story (9780307588159): Robert Baer, Dayna Baer: Books

This is about a man and woman who were in the CIA and eventually met. Each short chapter is written by either Bob or Dayna and involves some action they were in. This is real life stuff, heavily censored I'm sure, but still gives you a feeling of the kind of person one should be if one wants to be an operative out in the "field" -- assuming you had any doubts. I'm definitely the stay out of Dodge type myself and this confirmed it. I do not really want to explore Damascus or Beirut.

Spy fiction stories are kind of fun and generally should have some real life basis but really you never know. The information in this book feels like the real stuff.

The book also discusses some of the family issues that Bob and Dayna have gone through. Helps you to understand how some develop into physical risk takers and military/intelligence types.
 
Light - Science & Magic by Fil Hunter, Steven Biver and Paul Fiqua. Okay, it's a photography textbook not for everyone but interesting anyway. How to control the lighting to photograph things like polished metal and glass to make the item look good without unwanted reflections.

In another book I read of one person who buys items on EBay that have either no photographs or were poorly photographed, does a professional job photographing them, and resells for a hefty profit.
 
Finished Incognito: the Secret Lives of the Brain, by David Eagleman. A good read for science buffs who want to keep up with the latest research on the mind. It is an easy, interesting read.

About halfway through, Inside Scientology: The Story of America's Most Secretive Religion, by Janet Reitman. Ever since I read about rattlesnakes in mailboxes of apostates, infiltration of the Government by covert Church operatives, and then perused some of the advanced Operating Thetan documents on the Internet in the 90s, I have been fascinated by this religion. This book doesn't disappoint. I have no problem with Scientology being deemed a religion - everybody is entitled to their beliefs but, wow, it has the history of a major RICO operation as well. A must read for those who are interested in Scientology. It will be interesting to see how the book views the last decade of their operations as they have gone more mainstream and Hollywood. Someone should make a Broadway play about these folks.
 
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