What have you read recently? 2009 -2020

[Kroeran]

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.

My mother stayed in an expensive nursing home for a month to recover from a knee operation. It was horrible. She was not permitted to control her room temperature and the food was cafeteria circa 1960 boiled vegetables.

 

[Kroeran]

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.

Notwithstanding all of the legit selfish needs that are met by attending, very little of any denomination tracks with the points the historical Jesus was trying to get across in the gospels, nor his world view.

 

[misshathaway]

I'm listening to "The Dutch House" by Ann Patchett, read by Tom Hanks. The way Tom Hanks reads it, it transcends audio book and becomes a play. It follows a brother and sister from childhood to adulthood. The sister becomes mother to the boy and it's about their shifting perspectives of their shared life as they become adults.

 

[Lsbcal]

UPDATE: I finished The Girl With the Dragon Tatoo. It was absorbing and troubling at times. The plot is intricate and the characters are very interesting to me.

I don't know if the hacking details were accurate but maybe in the early 2000's they were. The book was copyrighted in Sweden in 2005.

I'm going on to the next book in the "Millennium" series, The Girl Who Played With Fire. Link to this series: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millennium_(novel_series)

 

[Octogirl]

recent reads..

We have freshman Health Science students read Being Mortal.
There is also a good video on Frontline- PBS available re YourTube.
Agree- everyone should read it



I'm reading Last Days of Night by G Moore - Good read on invention of electricity AC. DC. etc

 

[anethum]

I finished reading Successful Aging ("a Neuroscientist Explores the Power and Potential of Our Lives") by Daniel J. Levitin. It was just published this year. I found it very interesting. However, it is very dense text and it took me much longer to read than a novel of the same length. There are lots of interesting findings that he discusses. He says that he reviewed about 4,000 scientific papers while gathering material for the book. One frustrating thing, however, is that rather than using footnotes with citations or direct citations in the text, he has a lengthy "Notes" section at the end of the book. Each note is associated with a page number, citing the source. He explains why he did this (less "distracting" to read). There appear to be well over 1,000 notes/citations. There were a couple of sources I wanted to look up later, but because I hadn't written down the page number, it was extremely difficult to find the source information in the "Notes".

There is a 1 page appendix titled "Rejuvenating Your Brain" with 10 suggestions. #1 is: "Don't retire. Don't stop being engaged with meaningful work." I liked the other 9 suggestions, however.

BTW, I think this thread would be more useful if folks posted about books which they have finished reading as opposed to currently reading, so they are able to give their opinions about the book. After all, the title of the thread is "What have you read recently?", i.e. past tense.

 

[Lsbcal]

...

BTW, I think this thread would be more useful if folks posted about books which they have finished reading as opposed to currently reading, so they are able to give their opinions about the book. After all, the title of the thread is "What have you read recently?", i.e. past tense.

I agree and would add that it is much more useful if readers would discuss briefly why it is a worthwhile read for others. Just saying one read XYZ book is not useful.

 

[rpguy4]

Just finished reading a Wealth of Common Sense by Ben Carlson. Very appropriate read during this current market volatility. Definitely will help you to stay the course during these times.



(+1 Being Mortal)

 

[blueskyk]

Was just scanning my bookshelves and came across this one which I had started but not finished.

Scarcity: Why Having Too Little Means So Much

Summary:
“Scarcity captures the mind," explain Mullainathan and Shafir. It promotes tunnel vision, helping us focus on the crisis at hand but making us "less insightful, less forward-thinking, less controlled". Wise long-term decisions and willpower require cognitive resources.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17286670-scarcity

 

[Moemg]

Just finished "Love and Ruin" . It is the story of Martha Gellhorn who was a war reporter and the third wife of Hemingway . Pretty good read .It is not you can't put down but very interesting .

 

[CoolRich59]

In the spirit of these strange days, I'm rereading World War Z.

Then I'm going to reread The Stand.

 

[brainsagolfer]

Pandemic........ each chapter starts with the virus update: 100,000,000 infected, 8,000,000 dead. Great reading for the present time. Makes one wonder what would ACTUALLY happen IF that scenario played out.
I appreciate the need to take this seriously, but really - we are soft- think of the smallpox, malaria etc epidemics in the past - still built the Panama canal anyway.

 

[anethum]

So far, I've read 2 of the many books I checked out of the library before it closed indefinitely.

One was The Leavers by Lisa Ko. It was a National Book Award Finalist in 2017. A gripping story of an undocumented Chinese immigrant and her New York City-born son. She disappears when he is 11 years old. He is eventually adopted by an academic white couple in upstate NY. We see his struggles growing up, and later learn the difficult details of the mother's ordeal. It's painful to read at times, but is very rewarding.

The other book was French Exit by Patrick DeWitt. I managed to finish it, but I didn't really like it. It's the story of a wealthy NYC socialite who falls on hard times. She and her hapless adult son decamp to Paris. The story became way too absurd for me.

 

[misshathaway]

Calypso by David Sedaris. Collection of stories from his life. He is laugh-out-loud-in-public-with-your-headphones-on funny. I thought I had read most of his books but I am happy to have scrounged this up on OverDrive.

 

[Winemaker]

All Standing by Kathryn Miles. The story of the Jeanie Johnston, a Irish famine ship that never lost a soul on it's trips to and fro Ireland. It describes the prejudice to the Irish people, reminds us of how far medicine has come since the 1840's, and the guts those people had to get to North America.

 

[Lsbcal]

After reading The Girl with the Dragon Tatoo I read the second book in the Millennium series by Stieg Larsson. I think The Girl Who Played with Fire was even better then his first novel: https://smile.amazon.com/Girl-Who-Played-Fire-Millennium/dp/0307949508/ref=sr_1_2?crid=2PWFOVA36LP54&dchild=1&keywords=girl+who+played+with+fire+paperback&qid=1585056890&sprefix=girl+who+p%2Caps%2C223&sr=8-2

Mikael Blomkvist, crusading publisher of the magazine Millennium, has decided to run a story that will expose an extensive sex trafficking operation. On the eve of its publication, the two reporters responsible for the article are murdered, and the fingerprints found on the murder weapon belong to his friend, the troubled genius hacker Lisbeth Salander. Blomkvist, convinced of Salander’s innocence, plunges into an investigation. Meanwhile, Salander herself is drawn into a murderous game of cat and mouse, which forces her to face her dark past.

Lisbeth Salander is a totally unconventional character. Reading about unconventional characters is kind of cathartic for me personally.

 

[Qs Laptop]

Almost done with "Caliban's War", by James S. A. Corey, the 2nd book in "The Expanse" series. Really good. (Yes, the books that Amazon Prime's TV series is based upon.)

 

[Retch The Grate]

Provenance by Ann Leckie (quite fun) and Shaman by Kim Stanley Robinson (solid).

Provenance is in the same universe as her Ancillary series, but a different culture, which is neat to see (including their view of the culture from the Ancillary series).

Shaman is not as good as KSR's SF, but an interesting exploration of potential pre-historic culture that seems believable.

 

[Nemo2]

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/55027.Two_For_Texas

Two For Texas, an 'oldie' by James Lee Burke that I somehow missed, (haven't seen the movie either, and our library doesn't have it).

Having visited the Alamo in 1966, (back when you could still basically park out front), and Goliad, circa 1998, it's an interesting step back in time to catch a glimpse of how rough things were during those times.

Enjoyed it.

 

[donheff]

Almost done with "Caliban's War", by James S. A. Corey, the 2nd book in "The Expanse" series. Really good. (Yes, the books that Amazon Prime's TV series is based upon.)

I read the entire series. Excellent.

 

[Qs Laptop]

I read the entire series. Excellent.

Have you watched the Amazon series? I watched Season 1 after I read "Leviathan Rising". The video production mostly followed the book except for the last 75 pages or so of the book (the climax) was missing. Oh, and the Avasarala character was in Season 1 and she was not in the book at all. I thought if one had not read the book the video series would be slightly difficult to follow.

I plan on watching Season 2 after I finish Caliban's War.

 

[donheff]

Have you watched the Amazon series? I watched Season 1 after I read "Leviathan Rising". The video production mostly followed the book except for the last 75 pages or so of the book (the climax) was missing. Oh, and the Avasarala character was in Season 1 and she was not in the book at all. I thought if one had not read the book the video series would be slightly difficult to follow.

I plan on watching Season 2 after I finish Caliban's War.

I have watched the Amazon series. It is very good and largely follows the books. I agree that reading the books makes it much easier to follow the series. I kept stopping the playback to explain what was going on to DW. That said, people who have not read the books still love the TV version.

 

[harley]

I've started rereading Robert Jordan/Brandon Sanderson's Wheel of Time series. Reading them on my phone/laptop from the library. At 15 books averaging ~850 pages per book, I'm anticipating the whole Coronavirus thing to be ancient history by the time I'm finished.

 

[ArthurF]

Just finished re-reading (yes I'm at that stage) The Spy Who Came In From The Cold by John Lecarre. It's a short read, but excellent. While the plot is filled with intrigue and good pace, John Lecarre writes like a true novelist - places you in the minds of his protagonists, sets the mood, makes you feel like your actually living in 1950's England and Germany.

 

[Moemg]

I just finished reading Lisa Jewel's "I found You " . Her books are real page turners . This is about a man who shows up with amnesia at the same time a woman's husband is missing .