What have you read recently? 2009 -2020

[steelyman]

Browsing the local used book store I found a copy of "The Sotweed Factor" by John Barth. I remember reading it in the late 60s or early 70s and finding it very entertaining so I am reading it again. It's even better than I remembered.

Barth is great. I remember reading "The Floating Opera" for a class in college and loving it. The title refers to a riverboat/showboat and there's a great sequence where he uses it as a metaphor for people floating in and out of your life.

 

[heyyou]

As an occasional binge reader, the last couple of weeks were mostly spent on Lee Child's Reacher murder mysteries, one per day. There is lots of action and no message, just like television programs. Child was employed in that industry. I did enjoy spending so much time indoors in the recliner during the hottest weeks of the year.

Read N. N. Taleb's Fooled by Randomness. Had to put it aside often because I struggled to separate the message from the autobiography. I'm rereading it. A decade old financial book is fun since we now know the future of that period.

 

[Buckeye]

Columbine by Dave Cullen and Counterfeit Dreams by Jefferson Hawkins. I thought it would be interesting to read Columbine after the events in Aurora, CO and Jefferson Hawkins escaped Scientology after 35 years. I love to read about my neighbors! I'm not sure which was more heartbreaking.

 

[urn2bfree]

As an occasional binge reader, the last couple of weeks were mostly spent on Lee Child's Reacher murder mysteries, one per day. There is lots of action and no message, just like television programs. Child was employed in that industry. I did enjoy spending so much time indoors in the recliner during the hottest weeks of the year.

Read N. N. Taleb's Fooled by Randomness. Had to put it aside often because I struggled to separate the message from the autobiography. I'm rereading it. A decade old financial book is fun since we now know the future of that period.

I only read the first Jack Reacher and I think you summarized it very well. I just had no particular desire to read any more after that first one.

 

[imoldernu]

"A Maine Prodigy"
Written by my college room mate.

 

[Moemg]

I read "Cleaving " byJulie Powell of Julie & Julia fame . Luckily it was from the library because it was truly awful maybe worse than awful horrid .A boring book about her learning to butcher as her marriage is falling apart .If I wrote this book I would go into hiding .

 

[Moemg]

I read Gillian Flynn's "Sharp Objects " . Her other books were so intriguing I had to read this one. It was good. The characters were extremely weird but it was predicable . Her other two books had me guessing until the final chapter where as I was able to guess the killer early on but it still was a good read .

 

[haha]

Memoirs of a Superfluous Man, by Alfred J. Nock. It was a kindle freebie several months ago. I believe he lived through the late 1800s and perhaps up to WW2. He was born in America, but spent much of his life in Europe. He seems to have had adequate money to pretty much spend his time on his intellectual and other pursuits.

I really enjoyed it, and would recommend it to anyone with a contrary bent.

Ha

 

[Nords]

Similar message was discussed in recent book "Abundance" I.e. violent crime is on a long decline, but our brains are geared to seek out threats and this leads us to over represent bad news. (helped by media's "if it bleeds, it leads" approach.

I finally finished "Abundance". Wow. Best read of the decade. Maybe this century.

I can appreciate the idea of applying tech to squeeze more efficiency out of existing resources. But what really made an impression is our psychological tendency to extrapolate a trend toward infinity while simultaneously being unable to detect an exponential growth curve.

It's getting so that I don't trust any of my senses or heuristics...

Book review: “Abundance” | Military Retirement & Financial Independence

 

[Sarah in SC]

I really enjoyed it as well, Nords. Pretty amazing. I only knew vaguely who Diamandas was until I saw a review of it on the Freakonomics blog.

I'm reading Dan Ariely's latest book about his research into dishonesty and it ties in very well with my interests in behavioral economics. another good one!

 

[Lsbcal]

One thing that is in short supply are copies of Abundance at our library. I'm 20 on the wait list.

 

[MBAustin]

I've had good intentions and no follow-through to read more fiction. Last month I heard an NPR interview with an American mystery author who lives in Venice and was intrigued enough to see if the library had any of her books
A Tale Of Two Cities: Author Donna Leon's Venice : NPR

Picked up Blood from a Stone a few weeks back (it took longer than I expected to finish it with the Olympics being a major distraction). It's one of her more recent books (the library didn't have any of the older ones) but it was not difficult to jump in as she did a good job (re-)introducing Commissario Brunetti and the other characters.

Took that one back today and got another.

Now I'd like to find an author doing contemporary (post Berlin Wall) crime fiction set in Germany - since we lived there for several years I think the geographic and cultural references would be even more interesting than Leon's setting in Venice (which I only visited once). Any suggestions?

 

[Nemo2]

Now I'd like to find an author doing contemporary (post Berlin Wall) crime fiction set in Germany

Don't know of any post Berlin Wall books offhand, but I think you'd enjoy Philip Kerr's Bernie Gunther series......great reads!

 

[Lsbcal]

I've had good intentions and no follow-through to read more fiction. Last month I heard an NPR interview with an American mystery author who lives in Venice and was intrigued enough to see if the library had any of her books
A Tale Of Two Cities: Author Donna Leon's Venice : NPR
...

Thanks for mentioning this interview. I've read a few of the first Leon novels and intend to continue moving forward in time with the Brunetti series. One can see the sequence of them here: Donna Leon - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia . When she started on the series in 1992, Italy was on the Lira. It will be interesting to see how her views of Venice and Italy change as she progresses.

Sorry I don't have any German crime novels to recommend.

 

[SumDay]

So Much for That....

Just finished reading a fictional book called So Much for That by Lionel Shriver.

So Much for That: A Novel: Lionel Shriver: 9780061458583: Amazon.com: Books

It centers around a man's "retirement plan", and evolves into what happens when life gets in the way. If anyone has read it, or want to read it, and then discuss, I'd love to. It was brutally honest in many places, making me feel a little better about some of the ideas that run through my head.

If you're a reader, I highly recommend it.

A little more from The New York Times

Shep Knacker has long saved for "The Afterlife": an idyllic retreat to the Third World where his nest egg can last forever. Traffic jams on the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway will be replaced with "talking, thinking, seeing, and being"—and enough sleep. When he sells his home repair business for a cool million dollars, his dream finally seems within reach. Yet Glynis, his wife of twenty-six years, has concocted endless excuses why it's never the right time to go. Weary of working as a peon for the jerk who bought his company, Shep announces he's leaving for a Tanzanian island, with or without her.

Just returned from a doctor's appointment, Glynis has some news of her own: Shep can't go anywhere because she desperately needs his health insurance. But their policy only partially covers the staggering bills for her treatments, and Shep's nest egg for The Afterlife soon cracks under the strain.

 

[martyp]

Just finished reading, "Thinking, Fast and Slow" by Daniel Kahneman. Basically describes how people think and applies it to behavioral economics. A topic members of this forum would be interested in. Very readable.

 

[Dogman]

Recently read books

Author-Vince Flynn's All his books will keep you on the edge of your seat. I read 12 of them all great reads. You can't put them down.

 

[Nords]

Finally finished Dick Couch's "Sua Sponte" (the U.S. Army Ranger motto for "On their own accord"). He's already written about SEAL training and Army Special Forces training.

Here's three interesting insights from the Ranger instructors:
They expect the Ranger students to practice "peer mediation" as part of forming a team. The instructors can tell which candidates grew up playing organized youth sports (with adult referees, umpires, & coaches) and which kids grew up playing pickup games on vacant lots (having to solve their own problems among themselves). It makes the difference between seeking some authority figure to solve your problems for you, versus taking charge and solving your problems among yourselves.

The Rangers make their candidates pass a swimming test. The instructors say that they can tell who grew up playing in the swimming pool and who grew up dancing around the fire hydrant (presumably because their city neighborhood didn't have a municipal pool).

The difference between amateurs and professionals:
"Amateurs practice until they can get it right.
Professionals practice until they can't get it wrong."

 

[Free To Canoe]

I finally finished "Abundance". Wow. Best read of the decade. Maybe this century.

I can appreciate the idea of applying tech to squeeze more efficiency out of existing resources. But what really made an impression is our psychological tendency to extrapolate a trend toward infinity while simultaneously being unable to detect an exponential growth curve.

It's getting so that I don't trust any of my senses or heuristics...

Book review: “Abundance” | Military Retirement & Financial Independence

High praise. I read your book report. It seems like it might be like Bernstein's "Birth of Plenty". Is it?

 

[donheff]

David Brin's Existence is recommended for science fiction fans or anyone who likes to speculate about the big questions about our future. It is set about 50 years in the future. Very wide ranging ideas about the dangers and possibilities before us.

 

[NW-Bound]

I like to read non-fictions, and have problems finding interesting books to read. From earlier mentioning, I am sure Abundance is something I would enjoy.

Following are two non-fictions I read recently.

1) The boy who harnessed the wind, William Kamkwamba and Bryan Mealer

While perusing the shelves of the local library, I stumbled across this book. William Kamkwamba (born 1987) was a boy living in Malawi, a small African country that I had to look up on a map, who had the idea of building a windmill using a common bicycle dynamo generator. People including his parents were skeptical until he showed that he could power a portable radio and have electric lights inside his house instead of oil lamps.

Kamkwamba built his windmill by scrounging for parts around his farm and at a junk yard. As he was forced out of middle school because his father could not afford the tuition, he spent time in a local library for self-study. He went to the library in midday when it was too hot to work the farm, in between morning and evening work periods.

His invention was by chance discovered by the media, and eventually he was invited to present his work at a TED conference. William received support to continue school, and to build more windmills and solar projects for his village.

The book was a moving story of triumph by a boy living in abject poverty, who struggled through famine and hardship trying to improve the quality of life for his family using what he had available. This book should be required reading for schoolchildren world-wide.

2) The Yugo: The Rise and Fall of the Worst Car in History, Jason Vuic.

This is a heavily researched book with hundreds of annotations chronicling the story behind the infamous Yugo that was imported into the US in the late 80s. Somehow, I missed this period, although I heard of this car. Perhaps it was not for sale in my state then.

Just as interesting as the car is the man behind it, a serial opportunist who constantly looked to invest "other people's money" in dubious schemes, and unfailingly lost all that money in a dozen of projects. Among his investors for one of the larger ventures was the provincial government of Nova Scotia. If one does not get to know a wheeler-and-dealer in real life, this book will give the reader a good story about one.

 

[Nords]

High praise. I read your book report. It seems like it might be like Bernstein's "Birth of Plenty". Is it?

TBOP was about history. The "Abundance" authors are writing about future possibilities...

They're both very well written, they're both entertaining, and both of their bibliographies made me check out other books/websites on the subjects.

 

[Moemg]

Just finished reading a fictional book called So Much for That by Lionel Shriver.

So Much for That: A Novel: Lionel Shriver: 9780061458583: Amazon.com: Books

It centers around a man's "retirement plan", and evolves into what happens when life gets in the way. If anyone has read it, or want to read it, and then discuss, I'd love to. It was brutally honest in many places, making me feel a little better about some of the ideas that run through my head.

If you're a reader, I highly recommend it.

A little more from The New York Times

Thanks for the recommendation ! I liked this book a lot .A bit too long in parts but good .

 

[Koogie]

The Wild Beasts of Wuhan - another Ava Lee international business thriller.
Ian Hamilton Books - Ava Lee Novels - Crime Series - Canadian Crime Writer

The Forever War - Joe Haldeman. For a novel written in 1974 about the future, it holds up very well. Sure the dates are off a little (we weren't in interstellar spaceships by 1997, or did I miss that ? ha) but as a parable of the pointlessness of continual war it couldn't be more topical.

 

[Meadbh]

Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman, by Robert Massie.

Massie also wrote Nicholas and Alexandra, which I read when I was about 12. He is a historian who specializes in the Romanov dynasty. Anyhow, Catherine the Great is full of historical facts and is interesting as far as that goes. The problem with such remote history (18th century) is that without photographs or television, it's hard to know what she was thinking. We have to rely on the written word for the most part. So it's a bit less vivid than an account of recent history. Long book but I found it quite absorbing. Catherine II, originally known as Sophia, was a minor German princess who was brought to Russia to marry the designated heir of the Empress Catherine I. Her future husband was a relative and also came from Germany. He was, to put it politely, a useless twit, who had no allegiance to Russia, and never managed to consummate the marriage. Catherine was smart, sexy and politically savvy and became an absolutist monarch who expanded Russia's power and influence in the world. Along the way she took 12 lovers and had 3 children, none of whom she raised. After her death, her son, Emperor Paul, changed the law of succession from selection by the monarch to male primogeniture. The decks thus stacked against them, a Russian woman never again occupied the throne.

If you like history, this is definitely worth the read.