What have you read recently?

[Kings over Queens]

I am nearly the whole way through "The Ransomware Hunting Team: A Band of Misfits' Improbable Crusade to Save the World from Cybercrime", by Renee Dudley and Daniel Golden.

I just added this to my library list, will dig in over the weekend.

 

[Kings over Queens]

I just finished a book about the Snopes Monkey Trial that occurred in 1925, regarding teaching evolution in school. Clarence Darrow legal stuff. I'm sorry, don't have the exact title or author. I think it might have been trial of the century.

Also, a book on the Monsanto Round Up trial authored by the doctor who was an expert witness. Both good reads.

 

[Chuckanut]

Off the Grid, a Joe Pickett novel.

 

[EarlyandLate]

I just finished Timothy Egan's, "A Fever in the Heartland," a riveting book about the rise and fall of the Ku Klux Klan in Indiana and in general back in the 1920s.

The Klan had risen in power in the early 1920s, taking control of state and local government, law enforcement, churches, and some newspapers in the Great Lakes region, especially Indiana, while terrorizing anyone who wasn't a white Protestant. But it all came tumbling down quickly after D.C. Stephenson, a Klan leader, was convicted of killing Madge Oberholtzer at the end of a night of torture. Oberholtzer, knowing she was going to die soon after her awful injuries, wrote out her dying declaration which was crucial to the local prosecutor getting the conviction.

A fascinating book, even while it was tough to read at times due to all the atrocities done to her and others by the Klan.

I used to live in that neighborhood in Indianapolis. Whenever I walked past that house, I would think of that horror and wonder how anyone could live there. It is a really cool old house, though.

 

[NW-Bound]

At the boondocks home last weekend, I stumbled across a forgotten book which I did not finish reading: Paper Money (1981) by Adam Smith.

No, this is not the 18th century famed Adam Smith, but the pen name of George Goodman (1930-2014). The author wrote this book at the height of the inflationary period of late 70s-early 80s. He first talked about various causes driving the housing boom, then spent the last 2/3 of the book talking about what drove the high inflation then: oil price, and the growing influence of OPEC.

The author cited a poll in the 70s which showed only 4 in 10 people knew that the US had to import oil. They thought the high price was caused by US oil companies gouging. The US demand for oil grew to far exceed its domestic production, and in order to satisfy the insatiable demand for oil, more dollars were put in circulation to pay for the import.

I learned quite a few interesting tidbits from this book. For example, prior to the First Oil Crisis in 1973, the Swiss franc was worth 30 cents US. In just 5 years, it more than doubled to 75 cents, and has been worth around US$1.20 in the last decade. Also, I learned that the US dollar became the world reserve currency only after WW II. Prior to that it was the British pound.

I don't remember when I got this book, but it had to be in the early 2000s. I lived though the high-inflation period of the early 80s, but was too young to appreciate all the ecopolitical aspects of the time. It's been 40 years already, and reading the book brings back some memories.

I did not finish the book the first time, and put it away because of the rambling style of the author. But finishing the book after picking it up the 2nd time, I now enjoyed the many anecdotes that the author recounted. I guess I now have more time to read something like this.

I also remember that I had bought the first book by Goodman, The Money Game (1968). I need to find it to read it again.

And I just ordered and received his 2nd book, Supermoney (1972).

 

[indiajust]

A worthy reminder: I went back to thread start and came across the Kurlansky book reference. I too love Cod and Salt. There are salty cod bits scattered throughout the thread, not just the most recent.

A gentle suggestion to our good readers all, browse the thread like a sidewalk used book store. Now off to find a paper copy of Paper!

 

[vafoodie]

Also, reading Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow. Since I know, absolutely nothing about video games, I was skeptical at first, but I ended up enjoying it. I am reading, Red Comet, a biography of Sylvia Plath. I have read several biographies about her, but had heard that this one had new insight. for some reason, I am not zipping through it though it is well written. The absolute best book that I have read in a long time is Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver. It is a kind of reworking of David Copperfield set in modern day Appalachia. Absolutely masterful.

 

[donheff]

I finished the Passage Trilogy by Justin Cronin. I reported on book one, The Passage, a while back. This is a dystopian series about people surviving in an apocalyptic environment, beset by millions of "virals" - monstrous people infected by a malignant bat virus exploited by DOD to create super soldiers. The premise is pretty weak and initially put me off since I don't like the walking dead or vampire genres. But the execution is good, the books are fun to read, and Cronin invokes a new concept of the bad guys.

The author is a Harvard grad, an Iowa Writer's Workshop alum, and a creative writing professor. His academic chops show for good and for bad in his character development (including the lead bad guys) and scene setting. They are all well written but too long for me, my daughter, and DW. We found ourselves skimming through a lot of that. On the upside you have a choice - read it all and enjoy the prose; or skip by until the action resumes. I found it easy to spot the transitions from "filler" to action, and also easy to spot "filler" that I thought sounded interesting enough to slow down and enjoy.

I would give it a 4 out of 5 recommendation.

 

[Qs Laptop]

I finished the Passage Trilogy by Justin Cronin. I reported on book one, The Passage, a while back. This is a dystopian series about people surviving in an apocalyptic environment, beset by millions of "virals" - monstrous people infected by a malignant bat virus exploited by DOD to create super soldiers. The premise is pretty weak and initially put me off since I don't like the walking dead or vampire genres. But the execution is good, the books are fun to read, and Cronin invokes a new concept of the bad guys.

The author is a Harvard grad, an Iowa Writer's Workshop alum, and a creative writing professor. His academic chops show for good and for bad in his character development (including the lead bad guys) and scene setting. They are all well written but too long for me, my daughter, and DW. We found ourselves skimming through a lot of that. On the upside you have a choice - read it all and enjoy the prose; or skip by until the action resumes. I found it easy to spot the transitions from "filler" to action, and also easy to spot "filler" that I thought sounded interesting enough to slow down and enjoy.

I would give it a 4 out of 5 recommendation.

I read The Passage years ago. Your review is spot on. I did not read beyond the first book.

 

[Scout]

Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee
A sadlook at the extermination of a culture

 

[indiajust]

I've just finished the Invention of Enterprise. It's a look at entrepreneurship and enterprise, starting in Mesopotamia!

I will admit, the first couple chapters were a struggle. There were chapters broken by religious affiliation, cultural groups, notable countries, different parts of the same country...

Three chapters on US history, with interesting sidelights on the early structure of new england banking, plus a comparison of factoring in the cotton economy and how it is similar to india practices.

For a professed capitalist and entrepreneurial wannabe, I found the insights into the Indian economic approaches the most insightful. Because the monsoon season drives their economy, it also drives their investing/saving/credit economy via the information gathering of essentially everyone.

The question for Indian society: how do we get capital to the farmer, minimize risk of loss, get paid and get fed? The author of that chapter surmises that the vertical family structure combines with the lateral caste structure to form a high trust environment for all kinds of scaled capital investments that flow around the monsoon. It makes sense in retrospect that this society would have to develop social constructs to avoid death.

Interesting quote also around india's financiers... Chapter author states that the best of New York and London are mere table stakes in india. Entire society seems to be a decentralized credit and lending facility, doing both simultaneously at different rates and terms! Piqued my curiousity.

Timur Kuran again, wrote one of the chapters.

 

[anethum]

Wild New World: The epic story of animals and people in America, by Dan Flores, is a fascinating account about the origin of various animals in North America, and how things have changed since humans first arrived on the continent. I learned an enormous number of things about North American ecology and extinction.

The Raging Storm is the 3rd mystery in Ann Cleves' Two Rivers series. Her writing, as always, is outstanding.

I read 3 excellent novels by an Australian author named Kirsty Manning. The 1st was The Song of the Jade Lily, a historical novel involving a Viennese Jewish family who flee to Shanghai. The story moves back and forth from Shanghai during the Japanese occupation to modern day China and Australia. Though fiction, each section is utterly believable.

The 2nd was titled The Paris Mystery set in pre-war Paris. The sleuth is a British journalist who wants to convince her boss that she is just as capable as the male staffers for The Times. It's a very good mystery.

The French Gift may be my favorite of the 3 books by Manning that I've recently read. Set mostly in modern day France, the story involves a resistance fighter in a Nazi forced labor factory and her roommate, a maid convicted of a 1940 murder in southern France. It's all woven together extremely well and has a satisfying ending.

The Private Life of Spies and The Exquisite Art of Getting Even: Stories, is a stand-alone book by the prolific author Alexander McCall Smith. I absolutely loved these stories.

 

[indiajust]

Thirty years ago I enjoyed Temple Grandin's awkward elegance with Thinking in Pictures. I just finished Visual Thinking: The Hidden Gifts of People Who Think in Pictures, Patterns, and Abstractions.

Better analogies, stronger editing, the book builds on the foundations to explore what is wrong with education, thinking styles as complementary tools for high performing teams. She answers detractors of her focus on animals that were overwhelmingly used for slaughter houses.

She addresses how her opportunities to build a career came from making the most of the opportunities she encountered. A meaningful and practical book of optimism. From Gates/Mhyrvold to Jobs/Wozniak, she manages to reveal connections to thinking styles and relevance to current issues.

 

[FlaMariner]

just read John Grisholm's The Rooster Bar.....could not put it down and finished in a few days....love his books...another good one.

 

[indiajust]

In a related note, I read a brief elegy by CP Snow, documenting how it felt to be an extraordinarily credentialed person inside a declining british empire, while being out-competed by riff raff americans. Published in 1956 with an eye toward 1936, the failures of british education rhymed with Temple Grandin's observations.

Snow doesn't deign to mention asia, his world was only europe and the US. Still, he is talking about the same problem as Grandin, just from a vastly reduced knowledge base (and with a dramatically elegant british prose). point/counterpoint 80 years apart.

 

[brett]

Just finished The Sisterhood-Secret History of Women in the CIA by Liza Munday.

Interesting, well written.

 

[GhostofTomJoad]

Re-read Richard Brautigan's "Trout Fishing in America." It's got nothing to do with trout fishing. LOL. I can recommend his "The Hawkline Monster." It's a "gothic Western." I think he died by suicide. 1980s. Sad. He was surely unique.

 

[scrabbler1]

I just finished "Paved Paradise: How Parking Explains the World," by Henry Grabar. Grabar explains how the need for parking has greatly (and often, incorrectly) driven social policy and real estate development, often to the detriment of cities as the use of the automobile increased greatly in the 20th century. Attempts at reform have proceeded slowly in the last 30 years. It's a good read.

 

[Kings over Queens]

I just finished "Paved Paradise: How Parking Explains the World,"

Just added to my list. Looks interesting.

 

[Kings over Queens]

I just finished The Tao of the Backup Catcher, by Tim Brown, featuring Erik Kratz.

It's Kratz story of a 20 year career, mostly as a C2. Really good.

I've had a copy of The Color of Law on a recommendation here, and hope to crack it this week. The library is going to be looking for me to return it.

 

[Kings over Queens]

I am nearly the whole way through "The Ransomware Hunting Team: A Band of Misfits' Improbable Crusade to Save the World from Cybercrime", by Renee Dudley and Daniel Golden.

I really enjoyed this book. Thanks for the recommendation.

 

[scrabbler1]

Just added to my list. Looks interesting.

Many of my book ideas come from watching C-Span. I saw Grabar on that channel a few weeks ago, a rerun of his June appearance.

https://www.c-span.org/video/?528543-1/qa-henry-grabar

I found an email address for him, as I have some questions about the book.

 

[Mark1]

Recently read and enjoyed "What Your Food Ate: How to Heal Our Land and Reclaim Our Health by David R. Montgomery and Anne Biklé.

DW ran across it on a Peter Attia podcast and thought of me when Peter said it was a nerd book.

 

[Chuckanut]

I just started A Cold Day in Paradise. A former Detroit police officer is now a private investigator on the upper Michigan peninsula. I've read about 20% and so far like it. I hope it give me a feel of life in the back woods of Michigan and is not just another murder mystery that happens to take place in the back woods of Michigan.

This is my first attempt at using AI to find a book series that is similar to one I have already enjoyed reading (Joe Pickett, Wyoming game warden). ChatGPT recommended this series along with several others I already knew about.

 

[ls99]

Carmen, read in English.

Les Miserables, all 640K words, in Hungarian.