What have you read recently? 2009 -2020

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I just finished Sharp Objects, by Gillian Flynn who also wrote Gone Girl, which I haven't read. Sharp Objects was very unpleasant and overall had a lot of really sick characters. Since I paid for it, I made myself finish it. I wouldn't suggest it to anyone.
 
Ally said:
I just finished Sharp Objects, by Gillian Flynn who also wrote Gone Girl, which I haven't read. Sharp Objects was very unpleasant and overall had a lot of really sick characters. Since I paid for it, I made myself finish it. I wouldn't suggest it to anyone.
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Gotta disagree. Sharp Objects was a very good book, albeit with some sick characters. Oddly, while I liked Sharp Objects I couldn't get into Gone Girl, which everyone else loves.
 
donheff said:
Gotta disagree. Sharp Objects was a very good book, albeit with some sick characters. Oddly, while I liked Sharp Objects I couldn't get into Gone Girl, which everyone else loves.
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I read Gone Girl first and thought it was good but did not live up to the adulation. I rarely rarely don't finish a book but I could not get through Sharp Objects (mostly story line but slow pacing and characters I just didn't care about) and after maybe 75 pages skipped ahead to the last chapter and sent it back to the library.
 
Ally said:
I just finished Sharp Objects, by Gillian Flynn who also wrote Gone Girl, which I haven't read. Sharp Objects was very unpleasant and overall had a lot of really sick characters. Since I paid for it, I made myself finish it. I wouldn't suggest it to anyone.
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I liked Sharp Objects but I found the ending predictable .
 
If I had borrowed it from the library, I would have quit part way through. It wasn't boring, that I will give it. My daughter in law liked Gone Girl, so she asked me to mail Sharp Objects to her. She's mailing Gone Girl to me. I hope it's better.
 
I'm currently reading "Red Star Rising" by Brian Freemantle.

I have read every Charlie Muffin book so far.
 
Ally said:
If I had borrowed it from the library, I would have quit part way through. It wasn't boring, that I will give it. My daughter in law liked Gone Girl, so she asked me to mail Sharp Objects to her. She's mailing Gone Girl to me. I hope it's better.
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Her books are filled with dark characters and have twists & turns you do not see coming . I read Gone Girl and was so intrigued I read her other books . I found Dark Places much better than Sharp Objects .
 
I'm reading and skimming this: The Great Depression: A Diary: Benjamin Roth, James Ledbetter, Daniel B. Roth: Amazon.com: Books

The diary it is based on was written by a Youngstown, Ohio attorney. My own investment approach is intended to cover a crash but has yet to be crash tested. Might give ER investors something to consider. I think if you are an older investor, buying into major declines without a hint of market strength is unwise. The 1930's were much worse then the recent economic decline.

When the stock market crashed in 1929, Benjamin Roth was a young lawyer in Youngstown, Ohio. After he began to grasp the magnitude of what had happened to American economic life, he decided to set down his impressions in his diary.This collection of those entries reveals another side of the Great Depression—one lived through by ordinary, middle-class Americans, who on a daily basis grappled with a swiftly changing economy coupled with anxiety about the unknown future. Roth’s depiction of life in time of widespread foreclosures, a schizophrenic stock market, political unrest and mass unemployment seem to speak directly to readers today.
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We are going on a trip to England & Scotland. We'll be in London a fair amount and after reading a chapter in this book I decided to buy it in Ebook form: Londoners: The Days and Nights of London Now--As Told by Those Who Love It, Hate It, Live It, Left It, and Long for It: Craig Taylor: 9780062005861: Amazon.com: Books

It's about people currently living in London and working there. People from all walks of life. Kind of a Studs Terkel effort. It should be easy to pick up and put down on a vacation since these are short vignettes of the individuals with a lot written from their viewpoints.
 
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I was looking for this thread lately. I have begun reading "Naked Statistics" by Charles Wheelan. It is in the mold of the 2 Freakonomics books so if you liked those you will like this one.
 
Just finished Creole Belle by James Lee Burke.......more fun with Dave & Clete.
 
Lsbcal said:
We are going on a trip to England & Scotland. We'll be in London a fair amount and after reading a chapter in this book I decided to buy it in Ebook form: Londoners: The Days and Nights of London Now--As Told by Those Who Love It, Hate It, Live It, Left It, and Long for It: Craig Taylor: 9780062005861: Amazon.com: Books

It's about people currently living in London and working there. People from all walks of life. Kind of a Studs Terkel effort. It should be easy to pick up and put down on a vacation since these are short vignettes of the individuals with a lot written from their viewpoints.
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Lsbcal, you might also like Capital by John Lanchester. A novel about London during the financial implosion--it centers on a banker and his wife. But he also weaves in the lives of everyone who lives on a particular street in London. It reflects the diversity of Londoners, mostly through the lives of the immigrants who live there. Funny, spot-on characterizations and touching at the same time.

It's a long one though, and you would have to keep at it to keep everyone's stories straight! :flowers:
 
Hi Gardenfun, thanks for the suggestion. I'll check it out.

A few years ago I read "Other People's Money" by Justin Cartwright. Really good. Here is the Amazon review:
In a world still uneasy after the financial turmoil of 2008, Justin Cartwright puts a human face on the dishonesties and misdeeds of the bankers who imperiled us. Tubal and Co. is a small, privately owned bank in England. As the company's longtime leader, Sir Harry Tubal, slips into senility, his son Julian takes over the reins-and not all is well. The company's hedge fund now owns innumerable toxic assets, and Julian fears what will happen when their real value is discovered.

Artair Macleod, an actor manager whose ex-wife, Fleur, was all but stolen by Sir Harry, discovers that his company's monthly grant has not been paid by Tubal. Getting no answers from Julian, he goes to the local press, and an eager young reporter begins asking questions. Bit by bit, the reporter discovers that the grant money is in fact a payoff from Fleur, written off by the bank as a charitable donation, and a scandal breaks. Julian's temperament and judgment prove a bad fit for the economic forces of the era, and the family business plunges into chaos as he tries to hide the losses and massage the balance sheet.
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Lsbcal said:
We are going on a trip to England & Scotland. We'll be in London a fair amount and after reading a chapter in this book I decided to buy it in Ebook form: Londoners: The Days and Nights of London Now--As Told by Those Who Love It, Hate It, Live It, Left It, and Long for It: Craig Taylor: 9780062005861: Amazon.com: Books

It's about people currently living in London and working there. People from all walks of life. Kind of a Studs Terkel effort. It should be easy to pick up and put down on a vacation since these are short vignettes of the individuals with a lot written from their viewpoints.
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Thanks so much for this recommendation. I love London and look forward to a good read.
 
Now I'm reading A Week in Winter by Maeve Binchey. I love her books and this is no exception. Maybe by explaining that I love her books, you all can understand how Sharp Objects by Flynn was so unpleasant to me. In Binchey's books, I love nearly all the characters, but didn't even like one character in Sharp Objects. To each his own, I guess.;)
 
I'm in the middle of The Alchemists: Three Central Bankers and a World on Fire, by Neil Irwin. Good history of central banks and when and how they screwed up royally.
 
I just finished "The Burgess Boys " by Elizabeth Strout . Great book . The characters really draw you in . I had previously read Olive Kitteridge " by her and it was good just strange .
 
I just finished "Redshirts" by John Scalzi. I don't normally read science fiction, but this Star Trek satire/critique was fantastic.
 
I just finished "To Kill A Mockingbird". Haven't read it since middle school (a long, long time ago!) It is truly a classic, and remains as relevant today as when first published.
 
I just finished "The Power of Ideas: Infinite Resource on a Finite Planet". I think I had been reading too many post-apocalyptic novels. This one gave me hope that the apocalypse doesn't necessarily have to come. Up until now I have considered the gun and the chainsaw and the purse seiner man's eventual ticket to a planet without large animals, trees, and fish. The author says that our current rate of cross pollination of ideas will let us innovate our way out of our upcoming energy (end of oil), global warming, deforestation, population, fresh water, pollution, etc problems. Overall an interesting and uplifting book to read.
 
The Paris Wife by Paula McLain. Historical fiction about Ernest Hemingway's marriage to Hadley. If you are remotely interested in Hemingway and his time, this is a wonderful read.

I am ready to plan a road trip to the Hemingway-Pfeiffer Museum in Piggott, AR, although I am disappointed in how those two behaved. Hadley is the nice guy.
 
Just finished reading O'Reilly's Killing Kennedy: The End of Camelot - Interesting tidbits of information and very easy to read.
 
ohyes said:
I am ready to plan a road trip to the Hemingway-Pfeiffer Museum in Piggott, AR, although I am disappointed in how those two behaved. Hadley is the nice guy.
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I'm a little confused. Wasn't Hadley a woman, married to Ernest, a man? By "I am disappointed in how those two behaved," you mean Ernest and Pauline?

I see that the Pfeiffers had a 60,000 acre farm. I assume this in in the flat alluvial soil where someone today is getting rich on soybeans and richer yet on price support payments and some of the other wonderful payola for big farmers.

Too bad Ernest was such a blowhard creep, sounds like Pauline was a good wife to have and to hold.

I am reading William Wharton, Shrapnel. Not a good book to stimulate one's gung-ho-for-war attitudes, but very interesting nonetheless. From an excellent writer who was there, in the fullness of his grunthood.

Ha
 
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