What have you read recently? 2009 -2020

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For epidemiology buffs and anyone interested in cities, disease, and how common perceptions steer us wrong, I highly recommend Steven Johnson's The Ghost Map, which discusses the London cholera epidemic of 1854 and "how it changed science, cities, and the modern world." Excellent read, thoughtful and gripping.
 
Just finished a slim book by Richard Feynman, Six Easy Pieces Amazon.com: Six Easy Pieces: Essentials of Physics By Its Most Brilliant Teacher (9780465023929): Richard P. Feynman: Books. Feynman was a much admired Nobel Prize winning physicist. This is a great little book and it's pretty easy reading too. It's probably not something you'll sit down and read any more then a chapter or few sections at a time. He does a good job of connecting the molecular world we don't see to everyday observable things.

The final chapter on Quantum Mechanics might be a little challenging for some, but it does a great job of discussing the 2 slit experiments and wave-particle duality of matter.
 
lsbcal said:
Just finished a slim book by Richard Feynman, Six Easy Pieces Amazon.com: Six Easy Pieces: Essentials of Physics By Its Most Brilliant Teacher (9780465023929): Richard P. Feynman: Books. Feynman was a much admired Nobel Prize winning physicist. This is a great little book and it's pretty easy reading too. It's probably not something you'll sit down and read any more then a chapter or few sections at a time. He does a good job of connecting the molecular world we don't see to everyday observable things.

The final chapter on Quantum Mechanics might be a little challenging for some, but it does a great job of discussing the 2 slit experiments and wave-particle duality of matter.
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He is so interesting. I put this book on hold; thanks for mentioning it.

My current nighttime reading is Taras Bulba by Gogol. Very interesting book. Gogol is some enigmatic character!


Ha
 
Ha, let us know how you like the book. I got mine out of the library too and have now decided to splurge on the $8 purchase :).
 
Richard Feynman was one of my heroes when I was a student and studied physics from his "Lectures on Physics". Bill Gates has made some of his lectures available online for free.
 
Wow, those lectures really look interesting. I just took a peek at the start of the first lecture. Took place at Cornell in 1964 and the introductory video shows the campus plus students going into the lecture hall. I didn't go to Cornell but those pictures of students going into a lecture hall really brought back memories.

I know Feynman was a very entertaining guy. Rare for top physist. I'll definitely watch this. Thanks FIRE'd@51 !
 
"Hollywood Moon" by Wambaugh. It´s very good. Listening to "Fall of Giants" by Follet: So so....
 
Finished this week ...

Think Twice: Harnessing the Power of Counterintuition
Makers
Deluxe: How Luxury Lost Its Luster
Musashi: An Epic Novel of the Samurai Era

If you read a lot, I'd recommend goodreads.com (where I keep track of this). I often find new books to add to the reading list through what my friends are reading there (we have the same interests but more eyes).

Here's my profile on goodreads. Feel free to friend me.
 
The Photographer's Eye, by Michael Freeman.

Creative Night, by Harold Davis.

Learning to See Creatively, by Bryan Peterson.

Understanding Close-up Photography, by Bryan Peterson.

All photography books, but fascinating photos and techniques in them.
 
I recently finished two:

Mr. Hooligan by Ian Vasquez - enjoyable Belizean noir fiction. ~8.5
Dead Like You by Peter James - an excellent British detective thriller. ~ 9/9.5

For those quantum theorists above I would recommend Brian Greene's The Fabric of the Cosmos. ~9.0. He has a new one called, The Hidden Reality, but it is not yet available to order from my library.
 
haha said:
Vicente, you rather be Flotsam or Jetsam? Got many tweakers over there in gallegoland?
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I am more into Hollywood Nate. But what I enjoy best in the Hollywood series are the female characters:D!

By the way, don´t put me to shame by mentioning slangy words like "tweakers" whose meaning I´ve been unable to find out:blush:!

Do enlighten me, please:). Then I´ll answer the question.
 
Moemg said:
Vincent , I think you are a Grishman fan . His newest book "The Confession " is a great read .
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Moemg: you are right there. I´ll listen to it once I finish with "Fall of Giants" Given the size of this novel it´ll be a while yet:)
 
vicente solano said:
I am more into Hollywood Nate. But what I enjoy best in the Hollywood series are the female characters:D!

By the way, don´t put me to shame by mentioning slangy words like "tweakers" whose meaning I´ve been unable to find out:blush:!

Do enlighten me, please:). Then I´ll answer the question.
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Tweakers are methamphetamine addicts.
 
Quickie by James Patterson and someone else. Enjoyable and a very quick read.
 
Dreamer said:
Quickie by James Patterson and someone else. Enjoyable and a very quick read.
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Most of his are both. But I swear they take longer to read than they do to write. He has a new book out pretty much every week. I've wondered at times if Patterson is the name used by a consortium of writers, especially since his topics and styles are all over the map.
 
vicente solano said:
I am more into Hollywood Nate. But what I enjoy best in the Hollywood series are the female characters:D!

By the way, don´t put me to shame by mentioning slangy words like "tweakers" whose meaning I´ve been unable to find out:blush:!

Do enlighten me, please:). Then I´ll answer the question.
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Meth head.

Remember that freaky couple in the diner in Pulp Fiction? Tweakers!

BTW, I am trying to remember any female characters from a Wambaugh book. Who do you like? I do remember one gal who accidentally found a cash cache in the crawl space when trying to do good for an older neighbor. If I can remember, they both lived happily ever after.:)

Ha
 
harley said:
Most of his are both. But I swear they take longer to read than they do to write. He has a new book out pretty much every week. I've wondered at times if Patterson is the name used by a consortium of writers, especially since his topics and styles are all over the map.
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I agree . Some of his books are over the top raunchy and them some are just good mysteries. I haven't read any of his recent books that I thought were great .
 
For anyone who's not up to the in-depth physics, "Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! (Adventures of a Curious Character)" is a very entertaining look into the mind of this lively, engaging and brilliant man.
 
haha said:
Meth head.

Remember that freaky couple in the diner in Pulp Fiction? Tweakers!

BTW, I am trying to remember any female characters from a Wambaugh book. Who do you like? I do remember one gal who accidentally found a cash cache in the crawl space when trying to do good for an older neighbor. If I can remember, they both lived happily ever after.:)

Ha
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Ha Ha I´m unable to recall any special female character. But the impression that has stuck was that I preferred them to the male ones.
 
Early last year, I happened to pick up a donated book offered by the local public library for $1. It was Charles Kuralt's America. I decided to save it to read on my first month-long RV trip on Sep 2010. I just now remember to report on it.

Never much of a TV watcher, I barely recalled watching an episode or two of Kuralt's TV show "On the road" many years ago, but I knew of him as a TV reporter. I enjoyed reading America while RV'ing, as it was so appropriate on my trip. It was written by Kuralt after he retired early in 1995 at the age of 60. Yes, he was an early retiree too. He then spent the first year of retirement rotating to one location in the US each month, and wrote about his experience. The 12 locales that he described included New Orleans, Key West, Maine, as well as Montana and Alaska. It is an account of a real traveler, someone that I can never be. Not only that he stayed in a place long enough to observe, he got to know the locals, made friends with them, and got to hear their "stories". As an introvert, I am always a passive observer, though not a cranky unfriendly type.

After reading the book, I wondered what happened to Kuralt. A search on the Web quickly revealed that he died in 1997 of lupus, a sad short 2 years after retirement. If he knew his time was running out when he turned in his notice at CBS, he certainly did not mention of any chronic condition in his book.

Major Tom said:
For anyone who's not up to the in-depth physics, "Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! (Adventures of a Curious Character)" is a very entertaining look into the mind of this lively, engaging and brilliant man.
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This reminded me that I read of Feynman's exploits many years ago, and the book you mentioned was one of them. I wonder where my copies are. Time to re-read them.
 
I just read " The Hotel on the corner of bitter and sweet " by Jamie Ford . A story about the Japanese internment during the 40's . A great read especially for women .
 
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