What have you read recently? 2009 -2020

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This book has been mentioned in a thread here discussing generic drugs - Bottle of Lies by Katherine Eban. It is about the practices of (mainly Indian) generic drug producers and the FDA. It is very compelling and reads more like a thriller than a work of nonfiction. It will have you checking out the manufacturers of the bottles in your medicine cabinet!!
 
Origin Story: A Big History of Everything by David Christian.
"Most historians study the smallest slivers of time, emphasizing specific dates, individuals, and documents. But what would it look like to study the whole of history, from the big bang through the present day -- and even into the remote future? How would looking at the full span of time change the way we perceive the universe, the earth, and our very existence"

Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari
"One hundred thousand years ago, at least six different species of humans inhabited Earth. Yet today there is only one—homo sapiens. What happened to the others? And what may happen to us?"
 
I finished reading Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline. I really enjoyed this book.

I had no idea that there were real orphan trains and that between 1854 and 1929, these trains transported more than two hundred thousand orphaned, abandoned and homeless children.

I had a short time in my life when I was in the orphanage and lived with foster parents. I went to live with an aunt and uncle from age 11 until age 18. It brought back memories of how I felt and I relived some of those experiences. I have had a good life and I was so glad when I became an adult and I had control over my own life.
 
Gumby said:
I have now started on Ron Chernow's biography of Ulysses Grant.
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A long but excellent read. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

I just finished Vindolanda by Adrian Goldsworthy. Someone in this thread had read and liked the trilogy (I'm too lazy right now to look up who it was :blush:). I thought it was very good and immediately downloaded the second book The Encircling Sea.

I looked up Adrian Goldsworthy and it seems he is a noted British historian specializing (no surprise) in the period of the Roman occupation of Britain. While the books are fiction, Goldsworthy's knowledge enables him to keep the work very accurate historically.

Here is link to Goldsworthy's website where he discusses Vindolanda.
 
Nemo2 said:
The Girl Who Takes An Eye For An Eye......although Stieg Larsson is dead, Lisbeth Salander continues......written by David Lagercrantz and translated from Swedish.

Not bad....I imagine it's difficult for a writer to totally absorb the psyche of someone else's characters, but David L. gives it a good shot.

https://www.denverpost.com/2018/05/17/the-girl-who-takes-an-eye-for-an-eye-book-review/
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I am going to start with the first of the Steig Larsson books, The Girl With the Dragon Tatoo and then consider going on from there.

There is an interesting writeup about the author's death in Wikepedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stieg_Larsson
 
Lsbcal said:
I am going to start with the first of the Steig Larsson books, The Girl With the Dragon Tatoo and then consider going on from there.

There is an interesting writeup about the author's death in Wikepedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stieg_Larsson
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I bought the Kindle version of the trilogy a few years ago. Then saw the one movie. I think the casting nailed the characters quite well. I've enjoyed re-reading it a couple of times. Well written, well translated IMO.
 
Based on a podcast from a couple of years ago, I have started reading The Vegetarian Myth, by Lierra Keith.

t's a very scary and well-researched book that has nuggets of disturbing truth with every page turn. The essential concept is that life eats other life, and that's how it all works. Trying to be vegetarian, even vegan, is not supported by our biochemistry, and can be more destructive to our environment than we intend.

Agriculture, especially monoculture, is in itself destructive and upsets balances. Plants need the degradation products of animals (manure, calcium and minerals from our bones, etc.) We all, plants and animals, "eat" each other. Our human attempts to sidestep this concept is a destructive path for ourselves. It makes sense, but what the heck do we do?

Unfortunately, our current agricultural system is heavily dependent upon monoculture and fossil fuels, and is also dependent upon just a few huge companies, which have patented seeds and prevented local farmers from harvesting seeds from last year's crop for planting the next year. One of the concerns when we went into Iraq 17 years ago is that farmers were required not to save their seeds from previous harvest but instead purchase their seeds from Monsanto. Where we in the U.S. invades, our corporations follow. Google it if you think I'm out to lunch.

For the record, I do not know if this is all true. For the record, if true, I think it is wrong. For the record, I am sure I have personally benefitted from this behavior, if true, in the stock market.

In my tiny garden, my herbs go to seed and I collect them and plant them. I throw all vegetable food waste and yard waste in a composter, and have for 20 years.

What about the accidental tomato plants and cilantro that spring up? Those might be illegal, somewhere. I doubt the agricultural police will notice my tiny herb and vegetable garden.

This book is encouraging me to explore local sources for most everything I eat. Going keto 8 months ago helped me give up middle section of the grocery store, with all it's packaged highly processed foods. It is a section of the grocery store I have mostly ignored for years. Now I am researching local farms for my meat and poultry, who use sustainable methods which build topsoil and minimize, if not eliminate, all fossil fuel derived chemicals (fertilizer, insecticides). I hope to go directly to local farms for meat and poultry in the very near future. I already get my eggs from a local farm.

This book is potentially life changing.
 
Lsbcal said:
I am going to start with the first of the Steig Larsson books, The Girl With the Dragon Tatoo and then consider going on from there.
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I hope you are OK with debauchery, sadomasochism, torture, bestiality, incest, rape, bondage, animal cruelty, and other violence. This book is jammed full of it. When I finished it I felt I should apologize to God for reading it.
 
Qs Laptop said:
I hope you are OK with debauchery, sadomasochism, torture, bestiality, incest, rape, bondage, animal cruelty, and other violence. This book is jammed full of it. When I finished it I felt I should apologize to God for reading it.
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If it's that bad I probably won't finish it. DW read it and said it was kind of depressing.
 
Anybody who loves slightly weird mystery will love "Then she was gone " by Lisa Jewel .A really bizarre tale with a twist .
 
With all the recent snow we've had here, I've been rereading Tony Hillman's novels with Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee.

Reading novels set in New Mexico reminds me this cold is temporary.
 
I just started reading American Dirt which I reserved before the cultural appropriation brouhaha erupted. This woman can write. I’m glad I got it. Post reading conclusions to follow.
 
gretah said:
With all the recent snow we've had here, I've been rereading Tony Hillman's novels with Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee.
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I loved that series. Quite a few inaccuracies, which he later admitted and tried to correct, but very well written books.
 
Currently reading "Younger Next Year" by Chris Crowley. An amusing read with some sound advise albeit nothing new. Basically, keep moving, don't eat junk, and continue to be social in retirement.
 
I just finished "Being Mortal" by Atul Gawande. Then my wife read it. She liked it so much that after returning it to the library she decided she wanted to buy a copy.
Being Mortal | Atul Gawande

From his web site:
"Medicine has triumphed in modern times, transforming the dangers of childbirth, injury, and disease from harrowing to manageable. But when it comes to the inescapable realities of aging and death, what medicine can do often runs counter to what it should.

Through eye-opening research and gripping stories of his own patients and family, Gawande reveals the suffering this dynamic has produced. Nursing homes, devoted above all to safety, battle with residents over the food they are allowed to eat and the choices they are allowed to make. Doctors, uncomfortable discussing patients’ anxieties about death, fall back on false hopes and treatments that are actually shortening lives instead of improving them. And families go along with all of it.

In his bestselling books, Atul Gawande, a practicing surgeon, has fearlessly revealed the struggles of his profession. Now he examines its ultimate limitations and failures – in his own practices as well as others’ – as life draws to a close. And he discovers how we can do better. He follows a hospice nurse on her rounds, a geriatrician in his clinic, and reformers turning nursing homes upside down. He finds people who show us how to have the hard conversations and how to ensure we never sacrifice what people really care about.

Riveting, honest, and humane, Being Mortal shows that the ultimate goal is not a good death but a good life – all the way to the very end."

I'd call this must-reading for anyone planning to die in the future, and who wants to maximize their quality of life as they near the end. It does start a little slow, but stick with it.
 
The Alice Network by Kate Quinn.

Good novel about female spies in WWI. The novel is based on a true story but I don't know how historically accurate it was. It was a good read, though.

I liked the Stieg Larsson books, and I'm usually pretty squeamish about violence. Excellent plot.
 
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Picked up at a thrift store: Red Sorghum by Mo Yan - translated from Chinese, (Mandarin, I presume).

https://prezi.com/teqiv_ws2txf/a-brief-review-analysis-of-red-sorghum/
Red Sorghum's plot revolves around three generations of the Shandong family between 1923 and 1976. The narrator tells the story of his family's struggles, first as distillery owners making sorghum wine and then as resistance fighters during the Second Sino-Japanese War. The novel also details civil disputes between warring Chinese groups, including rival gangs and political powers. The book also refers to the Cultural Revolution and the 1972 resumption of diplomatic relations between China and Japan........//..........Mo Yan employs a terse style in the novel that is characterized by brevity and non-chronological storytelling written in the first-person. The work contains elements of folk-tale that blend into myth and superstition, placing it in the magic-realist genre.

As the principal crop of Shandong province's Northeast Gaomi Township (the author's hometown), red sorghum (sorghum bicolor) frames the narrative as a symbol of indifference and vitality. Amidst decades of bloodshed and death, it grows steadfast to provide food, shelter, wine and life.
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I'll see how it goes.
 
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Lewis Clark said:
I'd call this must-reading for anyone planning to die in the future, and who wants to maximize their quality of life as they near the end. It does start a little slow, but stick with it.
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Well, I don't meet the qualifications, but I might give it a read anyway.
 
I have nearly finished, "Unfollow, a Memoir of Loving and Leaving the Westboro Baptist Church," by Megan Phelps-Roper. Megan writes about her times with the WBC in Topeka, Kansas, before she realized she was wrong and made the difficult and painful decision to leave back in late 2012. She has been trying to make amends for her ways over the years. Quite a story.
 
Pandora's Star - a very complex story about.... Well, I haven't' read far enough to figure out what it really is about. But, it is interesting.
 
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