What have you read recently? 2009 -2020

Status
Not open for further replies.
I also finished "The Nearest Exit" recently. This is Olen Steinhauer's followup to "The Tourist," featuring Milo Weaver, a CIA Assassin with a bit of existential angst. Like "The Tourist", this is a very good spy thriller -- about 8.5. The jacket cover says "The Tourist" will be filmed starring George Clooney. Should be good.
 
"Spies of the Balkans," by Alan Furst is a good read. Furst is known for writing good historical spy novels. This one features a policeman in Solonika helping Jews escape from Germany in the months leading up to the occupation of Greece. I will put a hold on one or two of his earlier books soon.
 
Thanks Don, didn't know about this new Furst novel. I've liked several of Furst's books. I think the first Furst I read was The World at Night followed by the sequel Red Gold which was the better of these two. Blood of Victory was my favorite of his books.

P.S. Just put a hold on this. I'm number 134 in the library queue so the word is definitely out on this author.
 
lsbcal said:
Thanks Don, didn't know about this new Furst novel. I've liked several of Furst's books. I think the first Furst I read was The World at Night followed by the sequel Red Gold which was the better of these two. Blook of Victory was my favorite of his books.

P.S. Just put a hold on this. I'm number 134 in the library queue so the word is definitely out on this author.
Click to expand...
I will go with your two faves next.
 
Just about finished with Liar's Poker by Michael Lewis . I'm still on the waiting list for The Big Short . Liar's Poker was interesting .
 
Freefall: America, Free Markets, and the Sinking of the World Economy (Kindle Edition)by Joseph E. Stiglitz (Author)

I am in the middle of this book. Why I am doing this to myself I do not know cause this read is enough to keep you up at night. Think I'll stick to fiction for the next few books.
 
I 'm reading Lisa Scottoline 's "Mistaken Identity " . I really enjoy her books . They are like Grisham's from a female .
 
I am reading Henning Mankkell's Man From Bejing. A crime novel written with beautiful style.

Ha
 
I am reading "The Red Fox," by Anthony Hyde, and interesting mystery/spy novel from the mid 80s. It has the best quote for ERers I have seen. Describing an American ex pat in Paris he says, "...he had that glow of comfortable, prosperous health that spelled 'early retirement.'"
 
Cattusbabe said:
I am currently reading Micheal Lewis's The Big Short.
Click to expand...

donheff said:
I finished The Big Short, by Michael Lewis, author of Liar's Poker and The Blind Side. Go to the library and put a hold on it. It is by far the most enjoyable read I have encountered on the sub-prime fiasco. Lewis is an engaging writer and he gets to the heart of the mess though the eyes of a handful of people who saw it for the horror show it was early on. Along the way he does a great and entertaining job of explaining in laymen's terms how tranches of asset based obligations, credit default swaps, collateralized debt obligations, synthetic CDOs, and other arcana worked (or failed to work).
Click to expand...

Thanks for mentioning that you read this book, you two! I read "The Big Short" yesterday, almost entirely in one sitting, having decided to read it based on your posts.

IMO it is a quick read and entertaining - - easy reading at its finest, like a suspense-filled adventure novel. Even better, I feel as though I learned something about what really happened in the subprime mortgage crisis and subsequent crash.
 
I'm reading Niall Ferguson's The Ascent of Money: a Financial History of the World. It's full of interesting tidbits. Did you know that bonds were invented in Italy during the renaissance to fund wars, and that many sovereigns and governments defaulted on their debts? Or that banknotes were invented in France by a conman from Britain called John Law? Or that Spain fell behind in financial innovation because it just couldn't get away from the idea of precious metals like silver being replaced by paper? Or that Milton Friedman and his students collaborated with Pinochet to test their hypotheses, leading to radical and successful reform of the Chilean economy? It helps to have a basic financial understanding before reading this book; all in all, very enjoyable so far. it was published in 2008 and there is an afterword.
 
Moemg said:
Just about finished with Liar's Poker by Michael Lewis . I'm still on the waiting list for The Big Short . Liar's Poker was interesting .
Click to expand...

My favorite quote from Lewis:


“Looking for bad bonds inside a CDO (collateralized debt obligation) was like fishing for crap in a Port-O-Let: The question wasn’t whether you’d catch some but how quickly you’d be satisfied you’d caught enough. Their vary names were disingenuous, and told you nothing about their contents, their creators, or their managers: Carina, Gemstone, Octans III, Glacier Funding.” THE BIG SHORT by Michael Lewis
 
I just finished Liar's Poker too. After reading the Big Short, I felt the need to go back and read it.

I am now reading Free: The Future of a Radical Price So far, pretty good.

On the fiction side, the best book I've read recently is by James Lee Burke, The Rain Gods; a Novel It was my first novel by him and I loved his style and the description of the stark beauty of the Big Bend area. Pretty brutal in places.
 
haha said:
I am reading Henning Mankkell's Man From Bejing. A crime novel written with beautiful style.

Ha
Click to expand...
Ha,
I read his The Eye of the Leopard and it was amazingly good. He has a great writing style. I've read a couple of his Kurt Wallander books after that. I enjoyed them, but The Eye of the Leopard was exceptional.
 
I just read The Big Short too and it was a fabulous story! Some of it was infuriating, but the chapter "Accidental Capitalists" was hilarious, in parts. The book was so well written that I had to love it.
 
I just finished "Little Bee", a can't-put-it-down novel lent to me by a cousin. It concerns a Nigerian orphan forced to flee her country in fear for her life and the glamorous British magazine editor who has a connection to her from a long ago walk on a beach gone awry.
 
Oldbabe said:
I just read The Big Short too and it was a fabulous story! Some of it was infuriating, but the chapter "Accidental Capitalists" was hilarious, in parts. The book was so well written that I had to love it.
Click to expand...

I'm still number 11 out of 15 in our library system. We must have really slow readers in my county!

I've been reading the Doc Ford series by Randy Wayne White. Good ole gov't assassin turned Florida marine biologist thriller stuff. Fun to read, doesn't strain credulity too much, and I've learned a fair amount about southwest Florida in the process. I'm about halfway through the last book Dead Silence, so I'll have to find something else now. But definitely fun summer reading.
 
I can recommend "Faithful Place," by Tana French. I would give it a 9. It features a 40 something Dublin detective digging into a twenty year old murder of a girl he was planning to elope with. It is as much a novel about dysfunctional family dynamics as a mystery. very good.
 
Some time back Leonidas recommended Jos Wambaugh's Hollywood Series. I just finished the three I know about- Hollywood Station, Hollywood Crows, and Hollywood Moon. Super entertaining, and lots of street level detail that is funny and if my memories still serve, accurate.

I learned a new term for a meth-head "tweaker". Luckily, there are no tweakers among my current acquaintances, plenty on the street though.

He doesn't seem to use farfetched plot devices which usually turn me off of crime novels.

Ha
 
I am currently enjoying " In Praise of Slowness by Carl Honore

Carl Honore In Praise of Slowness

I have to say that I am really getting a lot out of this and have been making some changes in my personal life re. how I want to spend my ER as a result.

The whole issue of time, how much we have and what we use it for has always been of interest to me. It is one of the reasons I FIRED when I had the chance. I did not want to spend the heart of the day at w**k. However I find that I am over committing for activities.

Granted it they are not w**k related but I do not think that is good. I am trying to strike a balance between taking time to smell the flowers and feeling that I have to fill every moment because time is too precious to waste.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Similar threads

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

Latest posts

Back
Top Bottom