What have you read recently? 2009 -2020

Status
Not open for further replies.
I haven't yet read this, but I listened to an interview with an author, Candice Millard, who wrote Destiny Of The Republic. It's about President Garfield and seems good. That woman is bright.
 
Reading Sex and the Citadel by Shereen el Feki, an investigation into the sexual mores of the M.E., primarily Egypt, and how religion/society impacts them, and vice versa.

(Especially) For those who've never spent time in the area it'll assist somewhat in comprehending their societies.
 
haha said:
I am reading John Galsworthy's Man of Property. I think it was a $0.99 kindle book.
Click to expand...

Sounded interesting enough that I checked it out on Amazon and the price is right ... $ 0.00 :)

I am Malala...The Girl Who Stood up For Education and Was Shot by The Taliban by Malala Yousafzai and Christina Lamb. great insight from a different culture.

FDR by Jean Edward Smith ... read a few Presidential bios this winter and this one was very good start to finish

Composed by Roseanne Cash ... read 40 pages of this one. About as interesting as taking a tour through someone's wardrobe closet. Yikes.

A Place On Earth by Wendell Berry. This is my first Wendell Berry book and I have a feeling by this time next year I'll have read a dozen.
 
Hey, I read Destiny of The Republic. Very good - sheds light on a little-known part of U.S. history. Highly recommended. Glad to hear she interviews well.
 
Halperin's Double Down is an enjoyable history of the 2012 election campaigns. Lots of interesting insider tidbits and reactions to actions and gaffs on both sides.
 
donheff said:
Halperin's Double Down is an enjoyable history of the 2012 election campaigns. Lots of interesting insider tidbits and reactions to actions and gaffs on both sides.
Click to expand...

I am reading this one right now. It's a long book but worth the read, a page-turner. I read "Collision 2012" by Dan Balz last year, another good book on the topic.
 
The Boy who Harnessed the Wind, by William Kamkwamba. The inspirational true story of a very intelligent and creative boy growing up in Malawi, who builds a windmill for his family and his community out of spare parts, thereby giving them access to electricity and running water. The privations the family goes through during a famine are wrenching. William has given a TED talk, there is a documentary about him, and he is currently studying at Dartmouth. After reading this you will not feel inclined to complain about trivial inconveniences fir some time.
 
Picked up a copy of "The Journals of Lewis and Clark" at a garage sale last fall. I just started reading it. Not the most exciting read but they spent a winter in this area so I was curious.
 
I just finished Whitethorn by Bryce Courtenay. Historical fiction from South Africa. A very good read. I want to read some more of Bryce's work.

Just before that The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, also historical fiction this time from Afghanistan.

Both give a great deal of context to the history of the countries and the turmoil they have experienced. I'd recommend both highly.
 
I thoroughly enjoyed Juan Carlos Blake's, "Red Grass River." It is a historical novel about a family gang of moonshiners in south Florida circa 1910 - 1925. Blake writes in a Florida cracker dialog that really captures the flavor of the people, place and time. Trombone Al (see his thread about writing) will be pleased to know that Blake takes great liberty with the facts to capture the spirit of the thing.
 
Last edited:
Joe Queenan's memoir, Closing Time, which I read on Sunday, makes me a whole lot more charitable toward his writing than I have been in the past. Whew, if you think your childhood was rough...

I found it very compelling for sure, and I really liked how he couldn't quite bring himself to depict his father as a monster, no matter how monstrous he was to his children. It is a redemptive story in a lot of ways, but not the saccharine kind.

One point he raised that I rarely hear is that there is no collective experience in the USA. He didn't have a Ward and June Cleaver life in the 1950s, nor did the rest of the people he know who lived in Philadelphia's housing projects.

It bears reminding, though, especially to people like me, born later and that make assumptions about people based on my knowledge of "their generation". Woe be to the Millennial who thinks I like 80s's music just because I'm a Gen X!

It is a worthwhile read if you've ever read his satire, even if like me, you didn't really like it much.
 
Stumbled on, No Way Back, by Andrew Gross at the library. Gross writes a faced paced, easy read thriller. Gross has paired up with James Patterson on a series of books so that may tell you what to expect. Nothing award winning but a good beach read if you like this sort of thing. I downloaded a couple of his ebook titles to add to my travel library.
 
I just finished The Silent Wife by Harrison. It was a quick read and pretty good. I enjoyed it. All the PR describes it as the new "Gone Girl", but I think that is misleading. Gone Girl was wild and unique - I loved it, but it's not for everyone. This is not nearly as surprising or extreme, but I still thought it was a good read.
 
I enjoyed, The Cuckoo's Calling, by Peter Galbraith (a pseudonym for J. K. Rowling). This was Rowling's foray into non-Potter literature. It features a wounded warrior detective hired to learn the truth about he "suicide" of a super model. I never read any Harry Potter books but can see why people like Rowling's stories. This was a well written easy read with a good plot. Give it a try.
 
"Creative Metal Forming" by Longhi & Eid. I'm taking metal & jewelry classes at our local college. I read a lot of technical books and not much fiction.
 
Moemg said:
Movie was great . Meryl Streep and Stanley Tucci were perfect .What ever you do do not get Julie Powel's second book "Cleaving " . It is a complete dog !
Click to expand...

The buzz about Julie & Julia was partly because it was the first major motion picture that was based on a blog (with a book published in between the two). The sequence alone (notwithstanding opinions of the writing) was quite inspiring at the time for would-be bloggers/authors (part of the unraveling of the "traditional" path to publishing).

I have not seen the second book.

Kindest regards.
 
Read a lot this past week.
Thank You For Your Service - David Finkel
A fascinating account of Afghan War veterans struggling with PTSD and the deeply flawed system that tries and mostly fails to help. Classic SNAFU.
Gone Girl - Gillian Flynn
Wow!!!! Read it in 2 sittings - unputdownable.
Crazy Town - Robyn Doolittle
Biography of Canada's most notorious living person - Mayor Rob Ford. Written by the journalist who first saw the infamous crack video the book delves into Ford's life from childhood up until the present. A straight forward and non-exploitive record that gives more context to the bizarre behaviours of Ford and illuminates the challenges faced by responsible journalists trying to keep up with the antics of a delusional druggie who just happens to be the mayor of Canada's largest city.
The Navigator of New York - Wayne Johnston
One of the best authors writing today, this Canadian has a unique voice and an ability to immerse you in the story from the first sentence. His books are long and wordy but Johnston's Newfoundland upbringing infuses even the darkest subject matter with a racing, musical cadence that carries the reader on an unforgettable journey.
 
Should mention that for me the best thing about retirement is having the time and freedom to read a book cover to cover in one sitting if I so choose.
 
Just going through all of our Terry Brooks books. Nothing like a bit of tasty fantasy. My wife is leading the way.....I get the books after she finishes. Not like I haven't read them all a time or two.
 
Knocking off a couple from Amazon's recent 100 list. Our library had Barbara Kingsolver's "Poisonwood Bible" which I thought was fantastic. This is a book that gets lots of favorable reviews and lots of collective thumbs down. Creative use of telling the story with different voices with a lot of insight into a different culture.

Most of the way through my son's copy of Ralph Ellison's "Invisible Man" ... I was a bit slow in getting engaged but it is a wildly creative tale that, particularly when put in the perspective of when it was written (1952), is truly classic literature.
 
Rereading Amazon.com: On Basilisk Station (Honor Harrington) eBook: David Weber: Kindle Store

The good new is the book is free!

But come to find out that the movie will actually start with the next book in the series (The Honor of the Queen).

​
David's Essays || David Weber

If you like sci-fi, this one is pretty enjoyable to me. Interlaced with plenty of politics, relationships, grudges, all set in a universe of planet systems in cooperation and conflict. At the center of it all is Honor Harrington, who gets into a lot of jams, but never takes the easy way out.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Similar threads

S
Scott Burns' own story
Replies
3
Views
3K
haha
haha

Latest posts

Back
Top Bottom