What have you read recently? 2009 -2020

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Upon recommendation from members here:
How to Make Your Money Last: The Indispensable Retirement Guide by Jane Bryant Quinn
Now have DH reading it.
 
I read Zoo Station by David Downing. It is an interesting depiction of pre-WW2 Germany. First in a series.

As the pivotal year 1939 begins, John Russell, a British expatriate, is eking out an existence in Berlin as a freelance journalist. He is trying to keep his head down and play it safe so he can stay in Nazi Germany to be near his young son and his girlfriend--a glamorous yet cynical German movie actress. One afternoon, a Soviet agent approaches him with a business proposal for Russell to write articles putting a positive slant on Germany and to be published in Pravda--ostensibly to prepare the Soviets for a nonaggression pact with Hitler. But soon, both the Nazis and the British become interested in Russell's new business arrangement, and he quickly falls under their hardened scrutiny. After the alleged suicide of a fellow journalist, Russell finds himself in possession of perilous secrets that will tear his peaceful, safe little life apart.
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Amazon.com: Zoo Station (A John Russell WWII Spy Thriller) (9781616953485): David Downing: Books
 
Alice in Wonderland and its sequel Alice Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll.Read not as children's books but the political satires they were brings a whole new perspective!
 
"Crisis Point" by former senate majority leaders Trent Lott and Tom Daschle. Pretty good but not superb read so far. I'm also reading "Where the Right Went Wrong," by E.J. Dionne. That's a much better read.
 
Seized: A Sea Captain's Adventures Battling Scoundrels and Pirates While Recovering Stolen Ships in the World's Most Troubled Waters.

""Seized throws open the hatch on the shadowy world of maritime shipping, where third-world governments place exorbitant liens against ships, pirates seize commercial vessels with impunity, crooks and con artists reign supreme on the docks and in the shipyards--and hapless owners have to rely on sea captain Max Hardberger to recapture their ships and win justice on the high seas.
A ship captain, airplane pilot, lawyer, teacher, writer, adventurer, and raconteur, Max Hardberger recovers stolen freighters for a living.""

Quite the Indiana Jones type. I met a port captain who was a friend of his.
 
Love in the Time of Cholera.
A story of love and longing covering decades. Marquez is not an easy read for me, but this was worth the effort. It had me teared up and smiling by the end.
 
Just finished "Becoming Odyssa:Adventures on the Appalachian Trail" by Jennifer Pharr Davis, and now on "Yosemite National Park Tour" - both e-books
 
Just finished, for the second time, "Rethinking the Great Depression" by Gene Smiley.


For someone like me who is not verse in macroeconomic theory, the book is a very good read. And has some relevant application to recent history.


Amazon reviews are mixed, but I recommend it. When a 5 star review is given by a fellow author in economic history (Amity Shales), it can't be all that bad....
 
Currently reading Dino by Nick Tosches, about the life of Dean Martin. Absolutely great read about a true legend!
 
"Devil in the White City" by Erik Larson, the story about the Chicago World Fair and a serial killer who ravaged while the fair was being built and underway.

Another book I read and did not care for - "The Girl in the Spider's Web" by David Lagercrantz. This is a continuation of the Stieg Larsson "Millennium Series" stories (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo), the same characters but not brought to life as Larsson was able to do. A pass..
 
"On Eagles Wings," by Follett. A true story about the rescue of two Ross Perot employees who got caught up in the Iranian madness of the late 70's.

Good read, well written. Not as sensational as my standard fare of fiction, but that's probably a good thing.
 
"Dismembered Hungary" Laszlo Buday

A treatise of events leading up to and the deed at the palace Trianon in Versaillles France in 1920. Where Hungary of a thousand years ( was formed in 896 AD) was divvied up by the French, British, Russians and Americans. Lost two thirds of land area and half of the population. Describes the League of Nations pie in the sky idea of Woodrow Wilson. Which of course was ignored by everyone.
trianon2.gif
 
"A Sky Without Eagles, Essays and Speeches" by Jack Donovan. The essay "Train for Honor" addresses various reasons that men including him and me spend hours working hard in the gym every week. "This is the book to hand out to baby-faced university freshman who had the misfortune of being forced to sit through totalitarian humanist indoctrination sessions." -- comment by Keith Preston

"Home; How Habitat Made Us Human" by John S. Allen; "I have enjoyed reading Home. It has helped me put together just what disparate factors our realty really represents, what is its real meaning and value." comment by Robert Shiller, Nobel Laureate in Economics. I bought the book for my son as a house-warming present (among others) for his new house. I read it while visiting him. The review of homonid species other than Homo sapiens in our ancestry is fascinating.
 
I finished the first two books in the Red Rising Trilogy by Pierce brown and am reading the third. This is a SF Fantasy about revolution in a rigidly socially stratified solar system 700 years in the future. It channels a bit of Ender's Game with a full dose of Hunger Games, and Game of Thrones. I suspect gamers and fantasy fans would love the series. I am enjoying it even though I tend to stay away from fantasies.
 
After seeing the Harry Bosch seasons 1 & 2 from Amazon, I decided to try the books. Michael Connelly wrote the first in 1992, The Black Echo.

It's really good. Has some old technology like the cops using pagers and going to a phone booth to report in. First in 16 Harry Bosch novels so I've got plenty to look forward to. :)

For maverick LAPD homicide detective Harry Bosch, the body in the drainpipe at Mulholland Dam is more than another anonymous statistic. This one is personal...because the murdered man was a fellow Vietnam "tunnel rat" who had fought side by side with him in a hellish underground war. Now Bosch is about to relive the horror of Nam. From a dangerous maze of blind alleys to a daring criminal heist beneath the city, his survival instincts will once again be tested to their limit. Pitted against enemies inside his own department and forced to make the agonizing choice between justice and vengeance, Bosch goes on the hunt for a killer whose true face will shock him.
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I love the Harry Bosch books, but have yet to see the video series, though I hear it is great. I am working my way through the books. Also for those who are not aware of it, check out the website http://www.stopyourekillingme,com/ to find the books of your favorite character or author all in order! I find this especially helpful when getting books from the library.
 
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Couldn't get your link to work SDHiker. Usually I use Wikipedia to get the order of an author's book series. Here is the Bosch Series: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Bosch. Amazon seems to have caught on and offers something like that too.

It seems there is a Harry Bosch frenzy as I see our library has a lot of holds on even the very old books in the series.
 
Started reading Casca, The Eternal Mercenary. Casca is a series of paperback novels, by Barry Sadler. The stories revolve around the life of Casca Rufio Longinus, the soldier in the Roman legions who drove the Lance into the side of Jesus Christ on Golgotha,and (in the novels) who is doomed by Jesus to wander the Earth aimlessly, always as a soldier, until the Second Coming. Jesus condemned Casca by saying, "Soldier, you are content with what you are. Then that you shall remain until we meet again. As I go now to My Father, you must one day come to Me." As Jesus died, blood from his wound trickled down Casca's spear and onto his hand, and Casca unknowingly tasted it after wiping sweat from his mouth. The character is loosely based on the Longinus legend of Christianity.
There are something like 29 books in the series written by Barry Sadler and a grand total of 44 with the later ones written by ghost writers.
http://www.casca.net/

BTW, The author, Barry Sadler is the Army Sargent who wrote the song, Ballad Of The Green Berets. You know, 'fighting soldiers from on high, fearless men, who jump and die...
 
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skipro33 said:
Started reading Casca, The Eternal Mercenary. Casca is a series of paperback novels, by Barry Sadler. The stories revolve around the life of Casca Rufio Longinus, the soldier in the Roman legions who drove the Lance into the side of Jesus Christ on Golgotha,and (in the novels) who is doomed by Jesus to wander the Earth aimlessly, always as a soldier, until the Second Coming. Jesus condemned Casca by saying, "Soldier, you are content with what you are. Then that you shall remain until we meet again. As I go now to My Father, you must one day come to Me." As Jesus died, blood from his wound trickled down Casca's spear and onto his hand, and Casca unknowingly tasted it after wiping sweat from his mouth. The character is loosely based on the Longinus legend of Christianity.
There are something like 29 books in the series written by Barry Sadler and a grand total of 44 with the later ones written by ghost writers.
http://www.casca.net/

BTW, The author, Barry Sadler is the Army Sargent who wrote the song, Ballad Of The Green Berets. You know, 'fighting soldiers from on high, fearless men, who jump and die...
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So much for turning the other cheek :)



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Inherit The Dead - 20 different writers, one for each chapter.

Amazing piece of work. 20 top notch crime writers each do a chapter and none of them got to read what the others had before. Yet it is completely coherent and seamless. Amazing.

The bad guys are as bad as they come, the good guy is a disgraced ex cop now PI and that's all I'm going to say except just read it if you like this kind of stuff. Top notch -
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