What have you read recently? 2009 -2020

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Just finished Grisham's The Associate. Pretty good, standard Grisham. I could just say "big N. Y. law firm bad, small town lawyer good" and be done with it, but Grisham always spins a good yarn.
A single smiley for this one. :)
 
I finished The Big Short, by Michael Lewis, author of Liar's Poker and The Blind Side. Go to the library and put a hold on it. It is by far the most enjoyable read I have encountered on the sub-prime fiasco. Lewis is an engaging writer and he gets to the heart of the mess though the eyes of a handful of people who saw it for the horror show it was early on. Along the way he does a great and entertaining job of explaining in laymen's terms how tranches of asset based obligations, credit default swaps, collateralized debt obligations, synthetic CDOs, and other arcana worked (or failed to work).
 
Have never been a "reader" of books, but decided to load some "lite" ebook software on my iphone, for a test run. Not much of a selection, but borrowed "On The Duty Of Civil Disobedience" by Thoreau. Getting through that slowly...
 
I just finished Sh*t My Dad Says by Justin Halpern. Very funny book that I really enjoyed. The Dad reminds me a little of my uncle and maybe some members of this forum.:ROFLMAO: I downloaded the sample on my Kindle before buying it.
 
Moemg said:
After your first review I put a hold on it but unfortunately I'm #26 .
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I was #17 and then it just popped up for me at the library. They have many copies in the county system and so turnover can be faster then you'd think. The main thing I got out of The Big Short was that there are things like the 2008 crisis that can blindside us in equities so it's really important to either buy-hold or have a well researched exit plan independent of one's knowledge of business events i.e. equity price based instead.
 
happy2bretired said:
I just finished Sh*t My Dad Says by Justin Halpern. Very funny book that I really enjoyed. The Dad reminds me a little of my uncle and maybe some members of this forum.:ROFLMAO: I downloaded the sample on my Kindle before buying it.
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I follow them on my iGoogle RSS feed. I love it! So hilarious and I hear they are doing some kind of TV program or something, according to the FB page.

In the same vein, I bought the Quotable Douchebag for a friend. It is awesome in the extreme! Totally recommend it for that quirky sense of humor!
 
Moemg said:
After your first review I put a hold on it but unfortunately I'm #26 .
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I was initially #76 for the final Stieg Larsson book and #17 when I looked last week but I stopped by today to pick up another book and the Larsson had just come in.
 
donheff said:
I finished The Big Short, by Michael Lewis, author of Liar's Poker and The Blind Side. Go to the library and put a hold on it. It is by far the most enjoyable read I have encountered on the sub-prime fiasco. Lewis is an engaging writer and he gets to the heart of the mess though the eyes of a handful of people who saw it for the horror show it was early on. Along the way he does a great and entertaining job of explaining in laymen's terms how tranches of asset based obligations, credit default swaps, collateralized debt obligations, synthetic CDOs, and other arcana worked (or failed to work).
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Thanks for the review, I just placed a hold on it at the library. Unfortunately, I'm #526 in the queue, so it may be a while!
 
I just finished "The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society" by Mary Ann Schaffer and Annie Barrows. A nice, easy read - the perfect kind of book to read on vacation or at the beach. I found it rather predictable, and I wasn't crazy about the format (the whole story is told through letters written back and forth amongst the characters), but it did make me want to see Guernsey/The Channel Islands.
 
Paul Krugman's Return to Depression Economics. It was, well, depressing. :(
 
donheff said:
I finished The Big Short, by Michael Lewis, author of Liar's Poker and The Blind Side. Go to the library and put a hold on it. It is by far the most enjoyable read I have encountered on the sub-prime fiasco. Lewis is an engaging writer and he gets to the heart of the mess though the eyes of a handful of people who saw it for the horror show it was early on. Along the way he does a great and entertaining job of explaining in laymen's terms how tranches of asset based obligations, credit default swaps, collateralized debt obligations, synthetic CDOs, and other arcana worked (or failed to work).
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I just finished that one also. I second every thing you posted. A really good read.
 
The IPCRESS File
I think this was pretty much contemporary with the James Bond novels, and it is similar. British spy story with offhand violence and effortless everything, but no gadgets.
Dated plot, but I enjoyed the style.
One smiley. :)
 
I think William Boyd's Restless is one of the best WW2 spy novels I've read. A woman is recruited as a British spy in Europe. The story alternates between her WW2 experiences and the current (1976) period which includes her relationship with her grown daughter. DW said I might not like it because of the female heroine but I had no trouble with that. Women can be just as devious as men :).

Also another one I don't think I've mentioned here is A Spy by Nature, Charles Cumming. A young man interviews for a job in MI5. A bit spotty but it really had me hooked and I generally don't go for the mere page turners.
 
Ken Follett's Code to Zero. Not one of his best.
A frownie for this one :(.

Is it just me or are there a lot more errors in books these days? Content as well as grammar. In this book, the protagonist steals a Ford Fiesta in 1958! It really had me going for a moment.
 
The Terror, by Dan Simmons.

Fictional account of Sir John Franklin 1845 Polar Expedition in search of the Northwest Passage. This is the first book I've read by Simmons, he combines a very well researched account of the hardships of early polar expeditions, with a bit of the mysticism of the native population. One of the books I didn't want to put down.
 
Just finished Blind Side and Big Short by Michael Lewis. Both great books.
 
Just picked up two new books today to read on vacation.

The Worst Hard Time, by Timothy Egan

The River of Doubt, by Candice Millard
 
jimnjana said:
The Terror, by Dan Simmons.

Fictional account of Sir John Franklin 1845 Polar Expedition in search of the Northwest Passage. This is the first book I've read by Simmons, he combines a very well researched account of the hardships of early polar expeditions, with a bit of the mysticism of the native population. One of the books I didn't want to put down.
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This is on my pile of books to read, along with his Hyperion. Can't wait!
 
oneils said:
This is on my pile of books to read, along with his Hyperion. Can't wait!
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Hyperion is great. I put a hold on Terror based on how good Hyperion was - and jimnjana's recommendation of course :).
 
I also recently read The Big Short and agree it's the only one that explained the housing fiasco to me. It's amazing that so many people deeply involved in that didn't see it coming.

Just finished A Random Walk Down Wall Street and now halfway through The Myth of the Rational Market by Justin Fox.

All of this makes me think more and more that perhaps they're right - just put the newspaper stock quotes page up on a wall and throw darts to decide what to buy, hold, or sell. Seems as good a formula as any.
 
We've got six books/videos on hold right now, and that's the limit, so could you guys cool it for a while?
 
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