What have you read recently? 2009 -2020

[donheff]

I downloaded The Escape, Baldacci's latest, from the library and am half thru. So far this is a good one.

[Ally]

I'm reading Candace Bergan's new book. She has a good way of telling a story-not your typical bio.




Sent from my iPad using Early Retirement Forum

[braumeister]

For a 16th century French writer, Montaigne has proven incredibly popular through the centuries. There is a good reason for this. His Essays have made every succeeding generation say "Hey, this guy is just like me!"

Sarah Bakewell spent five years researching and writing this book, a biography of Montaigne through his writings and his adventures. I can only say it was magnificent, and I was saddened to come to the end of it. I wanted to stay in the book far longer. Beautifully written and totally engaging, the author obviously has a deep affection for her subject, and the level of scholarship and research are second to none.

Highly recommended!

Amazon.com: How to Live: Or A Life of Montaigne in One Question and Twenty Attempts at an Answer eBook: Sarah Bakewell: Books

[Gumby]

Quote:

Originally Posted by braumeister For a 16th century French writer, Montaigne has proven incredibly popular through the centuries. There is a good reason for this. His Essays have made every succeeding generation say "Hey, this guy is just like me!" Sarah Bakewell spent five years researching and writing this book, a biography of Montaigne through his writings and his adventures. I can only say it was magnificent, and I was saddened to come to the end of it. I wanted to stay in the book far longer. Beautifully written and totally engaging, the author obviously has a deep affection for her subject, and the level of scholarship and research are second to none. Highly recommended! Amazon.com: How to Live: Or A Life of Montaigne in One Question and Twenty Attempts at an Answer eBook: Sarah Bakewell: Books

Thanks for the suggestion. I have read and thoroughly enjoyed Montaigne's Essays, and still have a copy on my bookshelf. This sounds like a good companion to it.

[John Galt III]

Just finished The Dying Animal by Philip Roth. Much lighter than his usual stuff. But enjoyable anyway. Old professor has affair with young student.

[donheff]

The Hydrogen Sonata by Ian M. Banks is a good space opera. I will have to check out some of Banks' other SF books. I picked this one up at the library when I realized that Banks wrote The Wasp Factory, a haunting and disturbing novel I read a couple of decades ago.

Edit: went to the library web page to check possible downloads and realized I also read Banks' Transition, which was also good. I wasn't aware that he was the Wasp Factory guy when I read Transition.

[poorcarver]

The Moral Arc: How Science and Reason Lead Humanity toward Truth, Justice, and Freedom by Michael Shermer. Shermer is the founding publisher and editor-in-chief of the Skeptic magazine.

[John Galt III]

Now reading Rolling Stone Interviews, which I got from the library. Very interesting. Has about 50 interviews with famous people, mostly rock musicians. Jim Morrison, Jerry Garcia, John Lennon, many more. Each interview is only about 10 to 15 pages.

[Sarah in SC]

Just read a great book by Russ Roberts called How Adam Smith Can Change Your Life. Absolutely fantastic read.

Most of us know his Wealth of Nations, but Smith's earlier Moral Sentiments is stellar, and Roberts carefully teases out the lessons from the sometimes overwrought language of the original.

A fine book from the philosophically inclined, and one I recommend if you want to know the how and why of being a good person.

Just the "impartial spectator" part alone made it worth the read, encouraging me to consider more than my own perspective in conversations.

The WSJ (among others) reviewed it when it came out last year. http://www.wsj.com/articles/book-rev...rts-1413846808

[ampeep]

I'm currently reading 2 very different books:

Bud, Sweat, & Tees by Alan Shipnuck and
to hellholes and back by Chuck Thompson

[skipro33]

Proof of Heaven: A Neurosurgeon's Journey into the Afterlife Paperback – October 23, 2012

A Scientist's Case for the Afterlife...

Thousands of people have had near-death experiences, but scientists have argued that they are impossible. Dr. Eben Alexander was one of those scientists. A highly trained neurosurgeon, Alexander knew that NDEs feel real, but are simply fantasies produced by brains under extreme stress.

Then, Dr. Alexander’s own brain was attacked by a rare illness. The part of the brain that controls thought and emotion—and in essence makes us human—shut down completely. For seven days he lay in a coma. Then, as his doctors considered stopping treatment, Alexander’s eyes popped open. He had come back.

Alexander’s recovery is a medical miracle. But the real miracle of his story lies elsewhere. While his body lay in coma, Alexander journeyed beyond this world and encountered an angelic being who guided him into the deepest realms of super-physical existence. There he met, and spoke with, the Divine source of the universe itself.

Alexander’s story is not a fantasy. Before he underwent his journey, he could not reconcile his knowledge of neuroscience with any belief in heaven, God, or the soul. Today Alexander is a doctor who believes that true health can be achieved only when we realize that God and the soul are real and that death is not the end of personal existence but only a transition.

This story would be remarkable no matter who it happened to. That it happened to Dr. Alexander makes it revolutionary. No scientist or person of faith will be able to ignore it. Reading it will change your life.

[mh]

Most scientists and others who are respected in this area ( like Oliver Saks ) seem to have a pretty dim view of mr Alexander's publication.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eben_...r_%28author%29





Sent from my iPhone using Early Retirement Forum

[Sarah in SC]

Chuck Thompson is great, ampeep! That's a fun book!

[Bestwifeever]

Quote:

Originally Posted by mh Most scientists and others who are respected in this area ( like Oliver Saks ) seem to have a pretty dim view of mr Alexander's publication....

Your post made me look up Oliver Sacks and this result appeared: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/28/bo...move.html?_r=0

which is a review of Dr. Sacks' just-published autobiography, which I've put on hold at the library.

Quote:

In a blunt, eloquent and devastating Op-Ed essay in The New York Times in February, Dr. Oliver Sacks revealed that cancer in his liver had left him with only months to live. This knowledge, he wrote, had enabled him to see his own life “as from a great altitude, as a sort of landscape, and with a deepening sense of the connection of all its parts.”

[mh]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bestwifeever Your post made me look up Oliver Sacks and this result appeared: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/28/bo...move.html?_r=0 which is a review of Dr. Sacks' just-published autobiography, which I've put on hold at the library.

Anything by him is going to be a good read btw ...



Sent from my iPhone using Early Retirement Forum

[donheff]

I highly recommend, Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania, by Erik Larson, author of In the Garden of Beasts, and The Devil in the White City, both of which I also highly recommend. Dead Wake is a fascinating study of the Lusitania incident that all of us have read about but generally have only a very cursory knowledge of. For example, I always thought we declared war on Germany in response to the Lusitania sinking and was surprised that it occurred two years before our entry.

[Meadbh]

Quote:

Originally Posted by donheff I highly recommend, Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania, by Erik Larson, author of In the Garden of Beasts, and The Devil in the White City, both of which I also highly recommend. Dead Wake is a fascinating study of the Lusitania incident that all of us have read about but generally have only a very cursory knowledge of. For example, I always thought we declared war on Germany in response to the Lusitania sinking and was surprised that it occurred two years before our entry.

Great! This has just been listed for my Book Club.

[Meadbh]

Just finished The Brain's Way of Healing by Norman Doidge (2015). He is a neurologist, writing about neuroplasticity. The book is organized around human interest stories, with a basis in science, but many of the techniques described are experimental and I wonder about some of the statements he makes. Anyhow, a good read.

The Brain’s Way of Healing | Norman Doidge, MD

[Marita40]

I saw Sarah Helm's Ravensbruk on my library's new book shelf and am about 100 pages in. It is exhaustedly researched and well written. And of course horrifying even while compelling.

[donheff]

I finally got around to our own T-Al's Contact Us: A Jake Corby Sci-Fi Thriller. Al's SF debut is a bit dark and a lot of fun. Who would dream up an alien taking on a Walter Cronkite persona to communicate with Earth. Or that Cronkite should couple humor with psychopathic violence. The plethora of dystopian apocalyptic novels is getting old. But while Macy's world goes through some shocks, we humans shine through in a way that made me think of the upbeat vibe in Earth Abides. Happily the title encourages us to expect more Jake Corby thrillers. Send them our way T-Al.