What have you read recently? 2009 -2020

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Lsbcal

Lsbcal

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I find that reading a little bit of fiction makes my life feel richer and beats watching stocks go down. Here are a few books I've gotten from the library and read in the last few months:

Blue Shoes and Happiness by Alexander McCall Smith, one of his series about a lady detective in Botswana. Done in a lighthearted and humerous way. I think the first book in this series is The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency.

Dreaming of Bones by Deborah Crombie. Second book in her Kinkaid & Gemma mystery series. Well written in a style that reminds me of P.D. James. A believable plot line.

At Risk by Stella Rimington. The author is a former director of MI5 so she knows what she's talking about. Story about a female MI5 officier who pursues two terrorists in Britain.
 
Mostly non-fiction, "Line Upon a Wind" by Noel Mostert about Britain's war at sea from 1793-1815. Also "Stressed Out About Nursing School" by Stephanie Thibeault as I go off to school this fall (and am not really stressed about it, but open to learning anything I can before I get there.)

Finally, a great read by Neil Gaiman titled "The Graveyard Book". A piece of young adult fiction that's a Newberry Award winner, it's innovatively written and one of a kind, highly recommended.
 
For entertainment, I read most of the posts in this forum...

Always factual, never fictional... or was it always fictional, never factual?. I forget...:D
 
Westernskies said:
For entertainment, I read most of the posts in this forum..

Always factual, never fictional... or was it always fictional never factual?. I forget...:D
Click to expand...
It's a fact that I read the fiction in my previous post :).

For nonfiction, I found this one interesting:
Wealth, War and Wisdom by Barton Biggs. It covers a lot of 20th century market movements in the US and other developed countries. Biggs has lived though a lot of financial and geopolitical turmoil.
 
My current Trashy Novel is Jeffrey Archer's "A Prisoner of Birth". I'm on page 100 of a 600 page book and so far it's got me interested in the plot. It's a whodunnit based around a murder trial and if I know Jeffrey Archer, the innocent guy who's likely to be convicted for the murder will get his revenge in the end. Archer spent time in jail for fraud and had plenty of time to do literary research there!
 
I'm mostly a reader of nonfiction now. The last novel I read was Heyday by Kurt Anderson. The most recently completed nonfiction book was The Forgotten Man by Amity Shlaes - an examination of FDR's handling of the Great Depression. Next up are Economics in One Lesson by Henry Hazlitt and Paper and Iron: Hamburg Business and German Politics in the Era of Inflation by Niall Ferguson.
 
Old Yeller.:LOL: Someone gave my 97 year old aunt the book and she wanted me to read it since I have a dog. How could I say no? Up next, Big Red. :blink:
 
I'm reading the new Maeve Binchy book "Heart & Soul " . I'm also reading "Spend till the end " .
 
I just finished Dracula. Now I am re-reading S.I Hayakawa's book, Language in Thought and Action.

Ha
 
I've been reading a bit of fiction:

DOW 1000: by Dr. Doom.
S&P hits zero: by Best Economist
The World Ends Now: by Jehova and His Witnesses
Better Times Await: by Barak Obama
I can Predict: by Jim Cramer
 
For now, I do a lot of serious :mad: and frivolous :) reading online.
I do have several books on deck...
Enough by Bogle
Getting Started in a Fiancially Secure Retirement by Hebeler
True Stories of Law & Order (TV show) compilation by Dwyer and Fiorillo

...but I haven't started any of them.
One of my voracious reading spurts hasn't happened since fall. I'm due. Then I will rip through all 3 of them and look for more.
I think I have a few Danielle Steele hardcovers floating around somewhere for some "junk food" reading. :LOL:
 
Okay, this is embarrassing, but here goes. Fatal Tide by Iris Johansen, Suzanne's Diary for Nicholas by James Patterson and Confessions of a Shopaholic by Sophie Kinsella. My 20 yr old daughter has 5 of the Shopaholic books and some other books by Sophie Kinsella. She said she really liked reading them and I saw there was a movie out, so decided to give the first book a try. I was at my DD's apt, when I started reading it. I told her that I did not think I was going to be able to read the book, as it goes against everything I believe in, money wise. I told her that several times and she told me that I did not have to read it. I hate to not finish a book that I start reading. Then I became hooked, wondering how this was all going to end. I kept wondering if this is how people who run up their credit cards, etc, in real life, think. Example: She would throw away bills unopened, so she would not have to worry about them anymore. Anyway, I will probably end up reading the other 4 books, just as a way of sharing things with my DD. I am definitely into light reading at this time!
 
Stephen King's "Ur." Quick, entertaining, forgettable.

Just started "The Cook's Illustrated How to Cook Library" Oi ve, the purees, to die for. Don't miss the section on appetizers. For me cookbooks are fiction.
 
I know he's an old timer, but I just discovered Ken Follett and love it. Big John LeCarre fan. Anything by Updike.

Got a Kindle 2 for my recent b'day and loading it up. Keep the suggestions coming.
 
Rich_in_Tampa said:
I know he's an old timer, but I just discovered Ken Follett and love it. Big John LeCarre fan. Anything by Updike.

Got a Kindle 2 for my recent b'day and loading it up. Keep the suggestions coming.
Click to expand...
If you like spy novels then a few author's I've read are:
David Ignatius, Agents of Innocence is reputed to be a fairly accurate picture of what a case officer actually does. James Woolsey, former CIA chief, is supposed to have liked this one.

Alan Furst, does a good job of describing WW2 conditions in Europe.
Check out the reviews on Amazon. Some I've read are Red Gold, Blood of Victory

Eric Ambler, A Coffin for Dimitrios -- writer discovers life story of common crook and murderer in central Europe, copywrite date is 1939

Charles Cumming, a new writer. A Spy by Nature -- young man interviews for MI5 and gets involved in operation against American agents in London. Apparently the author had a brief go at the intelligence world in real life.

And there is Stella Rimington's books I mentioned above.
 
Moloka'i by Alan Brennert. This is probably the best book I have read for a long time, possibly in my top 5 of all time. I would highly recommend it. It's a real tear jerker, but a wonderful story.
 
I just finished House Thinking, by Winifred Gallagher. It's about the field of environmental psychology, or how our environment affects us and helps create our experience, and how this relates to our homes. It takes a potentially very wonky subject and makes it very accessible and interesting.

Also, DH and I restarted our subscription to the New Yorker as our Christmas present to each other, so I've been intoxicated with Hendrik Hertzberg every week. God, I love his writing.
 
I tend to read non-fiction, last was Collapse: why societies choose to succeed or fail by Jared Diamond. He's a geographer but writes society/human development, wrote Guns, Germs and Steel. Both are good but Guns, Germs and Steel made a better case for how various cultures developed or not.
 
Accelerando by Charles Stross -- what happens during and after the technological singularity
Soon I Will Be Invincible -- the first person story of a mad genius who tries to take over the world so he can gloat gloat gloat
Re-reading all of Jane Austen -- currently on Mansfield Park, and am thinking Fannie Price is really quite a drip
 
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