What have you read recently? 2009 -2020

[rdy2go]

I just got John Bogle's "Enough" from the library along with Daniel Solin's "The Smartest retirement Book You"ll Ever read". I just started on "Enough", and will report back when I finish it.

 

[braumeister]

Just read 438 Days and found it fascinating and engrossing.

The amazing true story of a fisherman who was caught in a storm off the Mexican coast and drifted 6,000 miles in a small boat until he washed up in the Marshall Islands. Survived by catching fish, turtles and birds with his bare hands.

 

[pb4uski]

On a recent trip I needed a book and saw an Amazon book called Leap by Michael Grumley that had good reviews and cost 99 cents so I bought it. I then noticed that Leap was the second book in a series and the first book was called Breakthrough and that was priced at $3.99 and had good reviews so I bought that one as well.

I've completed Breakthrough and it was good and am partway through Leap and that is good as well. Just good entertainment... nothing particularly deep... which is fine by me.

 

[Rosie]

I'm re-reading the entire Kinsey Millhone "alphabet series" of detective novels (A is for Alibi, etc) by Sue Grafton.

Grafton started writing these novels in the mid '80s, back when I was in gradual school. I read most of these so long ago that, by & large, they're new to me.

It's fun to read about what was commonplace, and what was considered "high-tech", back then. For instance, Kinsey seems to spend a lot of time looking for pay phones.

 

[MichaelB]

Just finished the Millennium trilogy by Stieg Larsson, and The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins.

 

[Ronstar]

Currently reading "Made by Hand" and "The Unplugged Woodshop", both by Tom Fidgen.


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[Bamaman]

My reading is limited to a number of internet websites, political sites, newspapers and magazines.

I'm to OCD and ADHD to read books any longer. I cannot stop reading a book until it's finished, and I ignore the family in the meantime.

 

[Moemg]

Recently read Rogue Lawyer by Grisham . It was good but IMO not his best that belongs to The Confession .

 

[Moemg]

I'm re-reading the entire Kinsey Millhone "alphabet series" of detective novels (A is for Alibi, etc) by Sue Grafton.

Grafton started writing these novels in the mid '80s, back when I was in gradual school. I read most of these so long ago that, by & large, they're new to me.

It's fun to read about what was commonplace, and what was considered "high-tech", back then. For instance, Kinsey seems to spend a lot of time looking for pay phones.

If you are a big Sue Grafton fan like I am read Kinsey & Me . It is the story of her life & how Kinsey was created . It also includes a few short stories . Great read .

 

[Nemo2]

Almost finished The Return of The Dancing Master by the late Henning Mankell.......reminiscent of his Wallander tales:

Fiction Book Review: THE RETURN OF THE DANCING MASTER by Henning Mankell, Author, Laurie Thompson, Translator , trans. from the Swedish by Laurie Thompson. New Press $24.95 (464p) ISBN 978-1-56584-860-3

 

[NW-Bound]

I recently read Rock Breaks Scissors: A Practical Guide to Outguessing and Outwitting Almost Everybody (2014) by William Poundstone. I learned of this book from a reference by Sengsational in this thread that he started, http://www.early-retirement.org/forums/f28/using-shiller-pe-to-time-the-market-73166.html.

If you enjoy Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions (2008) by Dan Ariely, then you will also like the above book.

I next checked out another book by William Poundstone: Priceless: The Myth of Fair Value (and How to Take Advantage of It) (2011). In this book, Poundstone recalled numerous studies and experiments by psychologists to see how people make decisions which are illogical or uneconomical.

 

[NW-Bound]

I am reading the biography of Steve Jobs that my son purchased and did not get around to reading yet.

Part are interesting, however, I am now into the part of the book that deals with his w**k years.

I keep asking myself why I am reading about someone else's w**k experiences.

I'm reading the bio of Steve Jobs, too. So much is very interesting and was unknown to me. He was apparently a very difficult man for those who had to work with him.

I worked in Silicon Valley for 25 years. There are a lot of brilliant but disturbed types there. There is lots of wealth created and who's to say that's good or bad. I don't know about Jobs but do not believe the hype. Full disclosure, I never was an Apple fan and do not believe in worshipping any corporate type and/or product.

That is not to say that reading a Steve Jobs bio is not a good thing.

I was given this book recently: Steve Jobs (2011) by Walter Isaacson.

What makes this book different than other previous tidbits about Jobs is that Isaacson was given access to people in Jobs' life for the info for the book, and was free to write what the author saw fit. The interviewees included his family members, and people working for him. Isaacson interviewed Jobs' friends and foes alike, and painted a good picture of Jobs.

I am not aficionado of Apple products, and the only Apple product I ever use is an iPhone 3 recently discarded by my son. However, being an EE I am interested in the competition between powerhouses like Apple and Microsoft, and also the power struggle inside Apple over the years that I knew a bit about.

Whether you like Apple or its founder, you've got to admit that they have had some innovative products. For example, it was Jobs who pushed for a touchscreen, while Microsoft kept insisting that the user needed a stylus. Jobs was very difficult to work for or work with, and his attention to details was anal and maddening to people around him. Still, one wonders if it were not for him, Apple would not become the company it is today.

 

[Palmtree]

It being Thanksgiving already here, today is the perfect day to post that I just read I am Pilgrim, a thriller along the lines of the 1980's Bourne books. The book's main plot is around Middle East terrorism, but there are lots of subplots in different parts of the world. At Amazon there are many rave reviews and a handful of equally negative reviews. I was one of those who liked the book a lot!

On recommendations I just read " I am Pilgrim". A terrible title for a wonderful book. The best fiction I have read all year. I highly recommend it if you are into this style of writing.

 

[Ally]

I'm listening to Not Without Hope by Nick Schuyler while I walk each day. It's about the 4 men, two who were professional football players, who were in the tragic boating accident. It's very good, especially for listening.


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[Throwdownmyaceinthehole]

I'm reading Erik Larsen's new book Dead Wake. It's about the Lusitania. I really enjoy his books.



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Just finished Dead Wake, and my hubby read it too. Non fiction, lots of details about the passengers on the Luisitania and the German side of the U boat. very good book and I typically don't like 'war' stories.

 

[Nemo2]

Just started Niall Ferguson's The War of the World http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/12/books/review/Montefiore.t.html?pagewanted=all which I picked up for $1 at our library bookstore.........(then today, in pristine condition and also for $1, I found Frontiers and Wars by Winston Churchill Search Results for: Frontiers and Wars )

They should hold me for a couple days.

 

[scrinch]

Just finished a combination thriller/sci-fi book called Split Second by Douglas Richards. It throws an interesting twist on the concept of time travel, when the absolute limit is traveling a half second into the past.

 

[MichaelB]

I read A Game of Thrones, then started reading A Clash of Kings, but gave up. I'm sure there is a good story there, but after 800 pages the plot, protagonist, etc. are not yet clear, so I'll move on.

 

[DrRoy]

I re-read A Walk in the Woods before seeing the movie, and like them both. My son today got me Moon Lander, How we Developed the Apollo Lunar Lander and that will be next.

 

[Nemo2]

I re-read A Walk in the Woods before seeing the movie, and like them both.

Loved the book, as I/we have done with all Bryson's work.....and the movie, (we're far from being moviegoers/watchers), is one we'll look out for at our local library.

 

[Marita40]

I just finished Alan Ehrenhalt's The Lost City: The Forgotten Virtues of Community in America. Having grown up in the Chicago area in the 1950s-60s, I found it fascinating. As all of us Boomers know, it was such an odd time to come of age--I, at least, felt what seemed to be an "extreme" distance between my parents' generation and the rapid cultural and social changes evolving around me. Now living in relative affluence in the 'burbs, my parents and grandparents spoke with nostalgia about the "old" ethnic (Czech, German) Chicago neighborhoods where they grew up and from which they had fled. Ehrentraut focuses on three Chicago areas on the cusp of change from community to the relative isolation we tend to live in today.
It may appear at times that the author is nostalgic for the 50s but I don't think that is the case. He's quick to point out the many negatives of the period, especially the fact that the generation coming up in the 50s-60s rebelled so profoundly against all their parents' generation stood for--conformity, authority, rules. Still he suggests, provocatively, that in the absence of such things community of the "older type" necessarily devolved.

 

[Lsbcal]

Read this MI5 oriented book: Present Danger (Liz Carlyle Novels Book 5) - Kindle edition by Stella Rimington. Mystery, Thriller & Suspense Kindle eBooks @ Amazon.com.

I think the 4 star rating is about right. I don't expect a very literary treatment from this former DG of MI5 writer. But factually I'd guess she is probably about right on. In other words, her fiction includes a reasonably believable real world event.
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Periodically I get interested in astronomy. SO I've started reading more about what's out there in our universe. Got this great picture book out of the library: Universe (Smithsonian): Amazon.com: Books
It's one of those big heavy coffee table books. Good for a brief read at night when I want to look at illustrations and re-imagine the wild stuff out there in our universe. Also a bit of physics without equations thrown in.

As a study + review guide this is good too: Astronomy: A Self-teaching Guide

 

[MichaelB]

Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania, by Erik Larson. Very interesting history, well told.

 

[Walt34]

Nexus and Crux, both by Ramez Naam

From the Amazon.com description, I couldn't do any better. I got the books at the library, but it looks like I'm going to have to buy the third in the trilogy, Apex. I'm sure it'll be worth it, and then I'll donate that one to the library.

Oh, here's the link on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Nexus-Arc-Boo...&ie=UTF8&qid=1451254412&sr=1-1&keywords=nexus

Nexus is a nanotechnology that allows human minds to link up. But rogue scientists are using it to turn ordinary people into killers (shades of Richard Condon’s classic novel The Manchurian Candidate). The American government recruits—in other words, blackmails—Kade Lane, a grad student who’s been known to tinker with Nexus, to get close to the suspected leader of the mind-control program. But, as Kade soon discovers, one man’s villain is another’s visionary, and he’s forced to choose sides in a hurry, before someone else decides he’s too dangerous to stay alive. Naam has set himself a difficult challenge here: he’s telling a story in which much of the action and dialogue takes place inside the characters’ minds. But he succeeds admirably: one scene, in particular, in which a character races to make changes to the Nexus system by reprogramming it inside his own head, is nail-bitingly tense, when it could easily have come off as preposterous. The dialogue might be a bit raw in places, and there might be a slight overuse of exclamation points, but those are minor rookie mistakes. What matters here is the remarkable scope of the story and its narrative power. --David Pitt

 

[Gumby]

Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania, by Erik Larson. Very interesting history, well told.

I'll look for that; I've always enjoyed his writing.

As a Christmas present this year, the young wife gave me Turn Right at Macchu Picchu by Mark Adams. A combined travel memoir and history lesson about Hiram Bingham, I found it well written and interesting. Having been to Macchu Picchu gave some added context, but it is not necessary to enjoy the book. It was easily read in a day.