Whatcha reading?

[Longhorn94 2457]

Just finished A Tale of Two Cities and To Kill A Mockingbird before that. Moving on to Lord of the Flies now and then Call of the Wild after that. 

East of Eden is probably my favorite book right now. Steinbeck is such an amazing writer. 

[Baboontyme 2821]

9 minutes ago, kevwun said:

If he really likes political books, you should get him started on Caro's LBJ books.   There's nothing better than them.

Thanks. As interesting for a non Texan as they would be for a Texan?

Disclaimer/more background - my Dad was born in Lebanon (the country) and moved here when he was 12. Has lived in Michigan his entire life. 

[kevwun 15855]

I think so.  LBJ is a fascinating character and Caro is a great non-fiction writer.

[Fudge Nuggets 19211]

I’m about 2/3 through this and have liked it a lot.  I’ve read several other books from Coll and enjoyed them all.

[demos 3004]

Interesting. I'm looking for some books for my 76 year old Dad to read as he's going to be laid up with surgery and saw this one and wasn't sure if it would be up his alley or not. How does it portray Israel overall? Positive, negative, neutral? 
Here's what my mom told me about the kind of books he likes. I already have the Comey book and a couple of others picked out. Any other recs would be appreciated. "Books about politics, prob would read Comeys book, Michael Connelly type mystery adventure, world issues, historical figures biography"
 

So far i’ve found it to pretty neutral overall.

[TwiceHorn 31529]

10 hours ago, Fudge Nuggets said:

I’m about 2/3 through this and have liked it a lot.  I’ve read several other books from Coll and enjoyed them all.

I assume that is mostly the dealmaking and investment bank stuff as opposed to the legal battle?

 

I love Barbarians at the Gate and others of that ilk, and I suppose 70s Texas and Hugh Liedtke are an adequate substitute for the 80s.

[Stoogey 219]

On 5/9/2018 at 10:01 AM, Longhorn94 said:

East of Eden is probably my favorite book right now. Steinbeck is such an amazing writer. 

Reading Winter of Our Discontent for the thirtieth time. One of the few writers I've sought out for everything they'd written. When I began reading Steinbeck in high school I thought how strange it was to appreciate books by someone I probably wouldn't enjoy meeting, mainly because what my teenage self took away from autobiographical Travels with Charley. I'm getting close to the age Steinbeck was when he passed away and not only do I have better insight to his stories but now the idea of talking over a few drinks with Steinbeck sounds like a perfect afternoon.

[Fudge Nuggets 19211]

On 5/10/2018 at 6:23 AM, TwiceHorn said:

I assume that is mostly the dealmaking and investment bank stuff as opposed to the legal battle?

 

I love Barbarians at the Gate and others of that ilk, and I suppose 70s Texas and Hugh Liedtke are an adequate substitute for the 80s.

Deal making stuff was the first 2/3 of the book and the trial and its aftermath the last 1/3.

[MillerEP 30494]

I've been on a "Classics" Kick recently. Went through Herodutus' Histories which I actually enjoyed, then moved on to The Iliad and The Oddesey, and now on to Don Quixote. After it I have The Three Musketeers, the complete works of Sherlock Holmes, and Johnny Tremaine. Once those are done, I'll get back to my regularly scheduled program of SciFi and Fantasy.

[wild_turkey 3181]

East of Eden is probably my favorite book right now. Steinbeck is such an amazing writer. 

I’ve been reading that for 6 months now. I got interrupted by a bunch of work stuff but I need to get back to it.

[Hellraiser97 183]

Just started reading Mistborn since I liked Sanderson's finish out of Wheel of Time.  Not far enough in to have an opinion yet.

 

Also listening to Steamborn, mainly because for one Audible Credit, I got three books and it was well rated.  First 6-7 chapters seemed kind of boring, but its picked up and I like the Steampunk setting.

[The University 851]

considering this for summer reading, but it looks like it may be a nontrivial commitment. any opinions on this title or the writer?

[lemonlime 5503]

I'm about halfway through and really enjoying it.

[Archer 474]

I’m working on The Templars by Dan Jones. It’s been a slow process with lots of interruptions. 

 

Previous book was the Apache Wars. It was really good especially after spending time in New Mexico. 

[elfenix 34331]

 

of course, i keep thinking of this guy:

[demos 3004]

Read this today:

[Guest]

Just read a pretty damn solid good book, in a style that I usually wouldn't favor, but it worked pretty decent: Sing, Unburied, Sing. For those unfamiliar, she won the National Book Award for 2017 and was a MacArthur grant recipient (so I don't know why I was skeptical lol), but I was moved, surprisingly. The NYTimes guy compared to Lincoln in the Bardo, which honestly, I felt this was better. I couldn't get into the play style narration of Lincoln in the Bardo whereas this was more familiar prose, broken into various POV. Anyways, I recommend:

[Guest]

Now I'm reading

[TwiceHorn 31529]

On 5/22/2018 at 5:12 AM, Fudge Nuggets said:

Deal making stuff was the first 2/3 of the book and the trial and its aftermath the last 1/3.

Picked this up, pretty solid read so far, just on the Getty background.

[SpiralOut 1818]

Usually I stick to Sci-Fi/Fantasy, but I've been trying to work through some of the all-time classics that I never got around to in my youth.  Currently reading Crime and Punishment.  Starting to think all Russians are fucking nuts.

[shakahorn 1645]

Finally got around to this one and finished it up on a recent trip.  Easy read, good story, I found myself looking up a lot of places on the map.  Gets a little "Titanic-y" but still a great book, maybe that's why it won the Pulitzer

Finished this one up on the same trip. Thanks for the rec on this thread.

On another trip, in the early middle of this one.  Haven't seen the movie.   Reads like it was written by a woman, maybe that's why i'm struggling with it.

 

[demos 3004]

Finally finished Rise and Kill First; good read.

Picked this up over the weekend and finished it tonight:

Much better than the movie.

[HOOK'EMHOOAH 1610]

Most recently, I read "Warped Passages" by Lisa Randall. Now, I'm working on her book "Dark Matter and the Dinosaurs."

 

Edited June 13, 2018 by HOOK'EMHOOAH
Italics not working, added quotes.

[idahorn 26]

Hue 1968 by Mark Bowden who wrote Black Hawk Down and Killing Pablo.  Gruesome detail on the only real urban fighting in Viet Nam.

Edited June 14, 2018 by idahorn

[idahorn 26]

Gordon Rhea's 5 volume history of the 1864 Civil War campaign between Grant and Lee, books on the Wilderness, Spotsylvania, North Anna, Cold Harbor, and on to Petersburg.  The newest came out pretty recently.  One of the few  nice things about being an old fart is that you can re-read books without too much recollection that you have already been there.

[NIUHuskies 504]

 

Just finished. Gwynne can certainly write. One of the better bios I have read in the past couple of years.

[Damor 1237]

Just read Neil Gaiman's Anansi Boys.

Man, that was a great vacation read.  I'd never read any of his stuff before, but I'm going to rectify that.

[SimonBolivar 10958]

 

I figured I'd start the Expanse series and it's really fun 100 pages in.

[TwiceHorn 31529]

On 5/9/2018 at 1:47 PM, Fudge Nuggets said:

I’m about 2/3 through this and have liked it a lot.  I’ve read several other books from Coll and enjoyed them all.

Just finished this.  Pretty good.  I have to admit that the various offers and plans and proposals between the various Getty entities got kind of confusing and a bit tiresome (all the Martys, geezus) partly because there wasn't a super-compelling personality(ies) as there was with Barbarians at the Gate and some others of this ilk, at least until Liedtke showed up.  What I think it did accomplish was to show how tiresome Gordon Getty was to business professionals.

 

And, having read other accounts of the litigation, I thought his analysis of the broad themes was really insightful and excellent.

[Court Jester 0]

Does anyone know when Robert Caro’s final volume on LBJ will be published? Articles written about Caro in the last year imply that the book should have been out by now.

[usmc0331horn 965]

I had no idea that Doctor Sleep was Stephen King's sequel to The Shining so I am reading that and then his new book The Outsider.

[KYHorn 17134]

About 2/3 through this. Really like it. It's a long read, but has been fascinating to read a history of the world through a middle eastern/asian lens. 

[idahorn 26]

To the North Anna River, Gordon Rhea's 3rd of 5 volumes on the Grant v. Lee 1864 Campaign in Eastern Virginia.  The series covers battles from the Wilderness to the Federal arrival outside Petersburg.  Very, very detailed and well written.

Edited June 24, 2018 by idahorn

[TwiceHorn 31529]

 

Just finished.  Very good read.  Shocking.

 

Just started this, not realizing the film was based on a book (more accurately a series of books):

 

It's set in Italy rather than Mexico, and Creasy is ex Foreign Legion.  About 50 pages into it and it's very good.  Also, Creasy survives to be the subject of several more books.  I think I'm gonna be busy for a while.

[usmc0331horn 965]

Just started this one.

 

[kevwun 15855]

On 6/22/2018 at 12:34 PM, Court Jester said:

Does anyone know when Robert Caro’s final volume on LBJ will be published? Articles written about Caro in the last year imply that the book should have been out by now.

Did he go to Vietnam to do more research?  Last article I found of him talking about the book from a year ago says he was done gathering materials except for a trip to Vietnam.  He wanted to go to Hue specifically.

[demos 3004]

I really liked Billion Dollar Spy. Silk Roads is one I keep picking up at Barnes & Noble but never buy; need to pull the trigger here one day.

Just finished this one:

Makes a good argument that over the past few decades we've become more enamoured  of military solutions to complex international problems.

[Longhorn94 2457]

Siddhartha

 

pretty interesting book on man's search for meaning.

[Rimbo 26052]

It's been a pretty entertaining read so far. And I have to say, it's ... pushing me back away from the ledge a bit.

While I'm inclined to believe any bad thing I read about Trump, it's worth taking this with a grain of salt; even Wolff admits in the foreword that his information on what actually happened was often contradictory depending on who he asked, so he had to construct a story based on what seemed to make sense to him at the time.

In other words, it's the literary equivalent of Reality TV. Which is entirely appropriate, given the reality-TV-show celeb who is its subject.

[demos 3004]

Finally finished.

[TexArcher 38027]

Just read The Death of Ivan Ilyich.

Further confirmation that Tolstoy has no equal.

[demos 3004]

Was taking some stuff to Half Price this morning, so finally got around to reading these last night (had them for a while but hadn't read them):

Then picked up Volume 8.

[Player 4576]

Picked this up at the airport earlier this week. If you believe that Oklahoma is populated by inordinate numbers of liars, cheats, and thieves - this book will do nothing to change your mind.

[Longhorn94 2457]

On 6/28/2018 at 10:05 PM, Longhorn94 said:

Siddhartha

 

pretty interesting book on man's search for meaning.

Finished Siddhartha. Really, really great book. Lots of inspiration and definitely affected the way I look at life.

 

Now, I am reading All Quiet on the Western Front. 

[demos 3004]

Another book about Central Asia down. Bout time for a break from that I think. Maybe the bio of Donald Malean or Ice Ghosts about the Franklin expedition.

[Chad Fuck 17742]

Finished Siddhartha. Really, really great book. Lots of inspiration and definitely affected the way I look at life.
 
Now, I am reading All Quiet on the Western Front. 

If you enjoy All Quiet, I can highly recommend Robert Graves “Goodbye to All That.” The view from the other side of the hill/trench from one of the great writers to come out of the generation.

[horn_of_the_morning 978]

Sycamore Row by Grisham

[horn_of_the_morning 978]

Any suggestions of other Grisham novels appreciated.

[idahorn 26]

Just finished The Mormon Murders, by Naifeh and Smith (re-read) and starting to re-read No Man Knows My History, (about Joseph Smith) by Fawn M. Brodie.

[TexArcher 38027]

Currently reading David Foster Wallace's Brief Interviews with Hideous Men.  If you like short fiction, at all, read this collection.

Also re-reading Steven Pinker's How the Mind Works.  Pop science at its best.