What have you read recently? 2009 -2020

[RobbieB]

Zero Day - David Baldacci

The first "John Puller" book, murders in "coal country" WV. Yup they knew too much. Puller and the local cops thwart terrorism in America.

Thrilling.

 

[Nemo2]

Just started The Nearest Exit by Olen Steinhauer, (had I been aware of it beforehand I would have begun with his earlier book The Tourist, but 'spilled milk' and all that).

https://www.google.com/imgres?imgur...iM6M&itg=1&usg=__3ZiANeCzQ2ZYbRvqQcWBFddUF-0=

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/23/books/review/Hammer-t.html

Being a nonlinear individual I finished The Nearest Exit, read The Burglar Who Painted Like Mondrian, a Lawrence Block standby, and am now into The Tourist, The Tourist (The Tourist, #1) by Olen Steinhauer — Reviews, Discussion, Bookclubs, Lists , to catch up to where I started......good genre reads.

 

[harley]

I've been reading Overdiagnosed: Making People Sick in the Pursuit of Health. It's pretty interesting. The author, Dr. Welch, isn't a conspiracy theorist. He's just noticed that by decreasing the numbers for various conditions (diabetes, cholesterol, BP, Osteoporosis, etc), millions of additional people are now defined as sick, and even more as pre-sick. But the people that get picked up by the lowered number are also the people least likely to actually develop the condition. And by treating them as if they were high risk they are at risk for all the negatives caused by the medications. Basically, the medical/pharma professions are exposing many additional people to dangerous side effects in the effort to save a very few from the effect of the disease. He says it's all with the best intentions (covering his butt with his fellow doctors, I'm sure), but that they need to pay more attention to the cost/benefit aspect of treating people.

It's a very interesting, although not very exciting, read. If you are interested in the interactions between the medical profession and people I would recommend it.

I'm also in the middle of The Promise by Robert Crais. The most recent Elvis Cole novel. It's good and entertaining as are all of his books.

 

[Moemg]

I've been reading the last few Anne Tyler books. I love her writing, but it's not for everyone.


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I just finished "A spool of Blue Thread " . I like her books but they are quirky .

 

[MichaelB]

I just finished a delightful book, "A Man Called Ove" by Swedesh author Fredrik Backman. Set in Sweden, it's about an aging curmudgeon, life, and death. An easy read, but oh so enjoyable.

 

[braumeister]

Unlike most here, I mainly read nonfiction.
The latest is an extraordinarily well written account of how genes were discovered and understood (as far as they are currently understood).

The Gene: An Intimate History by Siddhartha Mukherjee

 

[Meadbh]

Unlike most here, I mainly read nonfiction.
The latest is an extraordinarily well written account of how genes were discovered and understood (as far as they are currently understood).

The Gene: An Intimate History by Siddhartha Mukherjee

I also favour nonfiction. The Gene is on my list. I also recommend Mukherjee's first book, The Emperor of All Maladies, a biography of Cancer.

 

[RobbieB]

Burn - James Patterson

A bizarre tale of cannibalism in NYC. This one has been sitting on the shelf for a while and I think I should have left it there. Kinda weird and disjoint.

 

[Music Lover]

Zero Day - David Baldacci

The first "John Puller" book, murders in "coal country" WV. Yup they knew too much. Puller and the local cops thwart terrorism in America.

Thrilling.

I just read that one a couple weeks ago. Baldacci has a lot of good books, and many of them are series with recurring characters. Zero Day is book 1 of 3.

 

[harley]

Burn - James Patterson

A bizarre tale of cannibalism in NYC. This one has been sitting on the shelf for a while and I think I should have left it there. Kinda weird and disjoint.

I've quit reading Patterson. I don't think he actually writes any of his books anymore. Just farms out ideas and puts his name on the book.

 

[RobbieB]

I agree, this was a "collaboration" too.

I like "Clive collaborations", but I'll be passing on Patterson.

And Clancy is dead, but he's still writing eh? Amazing.

Not really though, Jimi Hendrix released a couple albums after he died. Show me the money!

 

[Music Lover]

And Clancy is dead, but he's still writing eh? Amazing.

Not really though, Jimi Hendrix released a couple albums after he died. Show me the money!

The difference is that Hendrix actually made those recordings. Clancy never wrote a single word after he died. At least, I think he didn't...

 

[harley]

Louis L'amour is still releasing books, and he's been dead for 28 years.

 

[Sarah in SC]

I'm just finishing Matthew Desmond's Evicted. I got it on audiobook for my long daily commute and it is very compelling. Desmond is an academic (and winner of a McArthur grant) who actually moved into two slum areas of Milwaukee to research this book and tell the stories of the people in the book.

I learned a great deal about the reasons why the worst housing stock is sometimes the most profitable, and how these folks who pay more than 60% of their income for rent manage to survive.

A worthwhile read, as he has a great gift for making their stories come to life, including both their bad decisions and their bad luck, in an unvarnished look at life on the fringes in a big city.

 

[folivier]

I'm cheap so I set up an alert at bookbub.com
Daily emails of free or almost free books base on the profile you set up. These are mostly Kindle versions, some from established authors, quite a few from new authors. But hey they're cheap or free.

 

[RobbieB]

The Guilty - David Baldacci

The latest "Will Robie" thriller. And thrill it does. Robie goes back home to his roots. And many murders. And teams up with his fellow CIA assassin Jessica Reel to get to the truth. Good thing too as there are serial killers and contract killers after them.

Good stuff!

 

[Koogie]

I'm cheap so I set up an alert at bookbub.com
Daily emails of free or almost free books base on the profile you set up. These are mostly Kindle versions, some from established authors, quite a few from new authors. But hey they're cheap or free.

DW and I both signed up. Thanks.

 

[sengsational]

Just started book 5 of 6 in "The Expanse Series"

This is set in a future where Earth, Mars, and people who live their entire lives in the asteroid belt and moons of Jupiter are at odds with each other (at times). And then some really weird stuff happens that nobody can explain.

There was a TV show for one season on SyFy that covered parts of the first and second books. Watching that, even before starting the books, might be a good idea (so you can picture the characters). I watched the series in between the first and second book, and I thought it might be hard to follow the show, but if you just relax into it, it comes together.

The universe of the series mostly acts with the physics we know (acceleration is not ignored), but has unexplainable stuff that all the players are trying to figure out to their own advantage.

It's kept me engaged, the characters are likable, so I've kept reading. Some series we a marathon, and I kept going because "I've gone this far", but this one I look forward to each new twist and what my friends will do next.

 

[harley]

Just started book 5 of 6 in "The Expanse Series"

This is set in a future where Earth, Mars, and people who live their entire lives in the asteroid belt and moons of Jupiter are at odds with each other (at times). And then some really weird stuff happens that nobody can explain.

There was a TV show for one season on SyFy that covered parts of the first and second books. Watching that, even before starting the books, might be a good idea (so you can picture the characters). I watched the series in between the first and second book, and I thought it might be hard to follow the show, but if you just relax into it, it comes together.

The universe of the series mostly acts with the physics we know (acceleration is not ignored), but has unexplainable stuff that all the players are trying to figure out to their own advantage.

It's kept me engaged, the characters are likable, so I've kept reading. Some series we a marathon, and I kept going because "I've gone this far", but this one I look forward to each new twist and what my friends will do next.

I read the first couple of books, and enjoyed them. I'll eventually read the rest. I've enjoyed the TV show, but DW doesn't like it (can't follow it) so I only watch it when I watch alone, which is almost never. I particularly like the photography, how it enlongates the belters to reflect their low gravity heritage. Thomas Jane does an excellent job in the lead role.

 

[Koogie]

This thread always delivers...

Thanks to you both re: The Expanse. Just watched the first episode on a pirate site (don't get SyFy) and placed a hold at the library on Leviathan Wakes. It must be a good book series since I was hold #44 on 1 copy !! lol

Liked the first tv episode. I prefer my space opera gritty rather than pretty and realistic rather than far fetched, so it scores on both counts. SyFy must have come into some money as well because the production values and quality seemed pretty high for a production by them.

 

[Nemo2]

Restless by William Boyd.....subsequently, it appears, made into a two-part BBC series*.........twists & turns, well done:

Restless by William Boyd


*Which I have, just now, put on request at our library.

 

[rayinpenn]

The Nest...
An Inheritance lost, greed and all the bad choices we humans make and have made..
Good stuff so far.


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[harley]

The Nest...
An Inheritance lost, greed and all the bad choices we humans make and have made..
Good stuff so far.

Author names are useful. A quick Google search gives lots of information about thermostats.

 

[Lsbcal]

I think our sun and stars are fascinating and frustrating. Frustrating because we can only know them as a model, no way to get up close and personal. But some of the modeling is very interesting and is done in believable detail -- like the proton-proton chain that leads to the billions of neutrinos flowing through our bodies (and out the other end of the earth). This book, The Life and Death of Stars, does a good job without getting too technical (no math).

OK, the first chapters are boring and a review for me. I'm not interested in learning the constellations, just mostly in what those contained thermonuclear reactions are like and what particles are produced and what's going to happen over the next billions of years.

It is not a page turner in my opinion and I'm taking it a few pages at a time when the mood strikes me. It's a good diversion from fiction reading too. Link: https://smile.amazon.com/Life-Death...05787&sr=8-1&keywords=life+and+death+of+stars

 

[Sarah in SC]

A good one for the post apocalyptic end of the world genre: Age of Miracles. First novel by Karen Thompson Walker. I really liked it, but it did drag a bit in a few places, mostly when bogged down in the normal everyday stuff of a middle schooler. Narrated by a young girl about the time of the "slowing", when the earth's rotation began slowing down, extending the days and nights.

I'd say more for the ladies, honestly, as it doesn't include much hard science kinda speculation as some other authors in this space (like Hugh Howey).