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Whatcha readin now? (book, books, reading, read) (1 Viewer)

Listening to the audiobook of Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman. It's really good and Neil really seems to bring Thor, Loki, and the other Norse gods.

 
Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking  It isn't a new book, but given to me for Christmas.  The into spoke to my soul as an introvert.  Hopefully I can talk my wife into reading a small snippet of it so she can understand me better.  Some of it reads a little too much like a college thesis, but I am enjoying it so far.  It's the kind of book where I am regularly thinking "yes, exactly!" to myself.

 
El Floppo said:
krista4 said:
Did you get some sort of discount for it being his brother's ripoff of the same book or something?

ETA:  What did you think of it?
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Started it on the train back up. The writing is pretty fantastic, but the content and thought so far reminds me of way too many late night random dorm crazy conversations. Not a bad thing, but not grabbing me yet or pushing me into any new ground. I'm still early in the book though, and a more driving plot point may yet arise to better turn my crank.
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I brought it with me on spring break and read through some more without finishing... forgot I wrote the above, but it's pretty apt. the writing and thoughts conveyed by the characters is genius, but nothing gripping in terms of overall story. as such, it makes for good incremental reading (subway, bus, etc) because each page is full of fantastic prose, but does little in pushing forward the story. did enjoy finding out the genesis of yet another indie band, the airborne toxic event. also looking at you Francisco the Man.

eta: talking about Dawn Delillo's White Noise.

 
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Just read Here be Dragons by Sharon Kay Penman. A wonderful historical fiction about the political intrigue in Wales, England and France in the 13th Century - spanning the kingdoms of Henry II, Richard I, John, and Henry III. The main protagonist is Llywelyn the Great, a Welsh Prince who had to withstand both tribal Welsh in-fighting and the political machinations of the scheming English Kings to maintain control of Northern Wales. A great character study which also provides some fascinating historical context, particularly as you see how Kings would routinely marry off their young children in order to secure (only to later dissolve) truces with their sworn enemies. Some of the stories are so outlandish that they are hardly believable, which is all the more incredible given that most of the book is based on fairly indisputable historical facts.

Currently reading The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara which gives an hour by hour account of the Battle of Gettysburg. Winner of the Pulitzer Prize. About 150 pages in and its gripping as far as military strategy goes. Gets you really deep inside the heads of the main protagonists.

 
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mr. furley said:
cool

prices are kind of all over the place on Amazon. google says "from 2.99". clicking the books individually says "from 5.99" and on my wish list it starts at "45.99"

:loco:
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That is odd.  There are so many reprintings and different versions of it that it may be difficult for Amazon to figure it out.  I have a hardcover set that came out for the 150th Anniversary of the Civil War about 5-6 years ago, but it looks like it is only available used now -- looking at prices, it appears to be the rare book for me that has increased in value since I purchased it.

I remember telling people after I read it that it is among the greatest things that I've ever read.  I'll stand by that.

 
Don Quixote said:
About to start Robert Merry's A Country of Vast Designs: James K. Polk, the Mexican War, and the Conquest of the American Continent.  At least Polk is a bit of a big one to keep the run going.  Surprised I haven't read a bio on Polk before.
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This one was pretty good. The best that I have read in my recent spurt of filling in gaps on Presidential bios.  A thorough account and pretty well-balanced; he gives due discussion to the controversial nature of the Mexican-American War (even at the time).

Plunged ahead with John S.D. Eisenhower's Zachary Taylor from the American Presidents Series.  I did not know that much about him, but I came away fairly impressed. Eisenhower has a discussion late concerning a "what if" Taylor lived, with a point made that he may have been the one person who could have prevented the Civil War (as a popular, slaveholding southerner who had no patience for secessionists, and it would have prevented the presidencies of Fillmore and Pierce).

I purchased Robert Rayback's Millard Fillmore, but I... I... just couldn't.  Not yet anyway.  Taking a break with some fiction.  Purchased Chabon's The Yiddish Policeman's Union when it was a Kindle deal a couple of weeks ago and reading that first.

 
Don Quixote said:
I've been keeping this going, but not sure how much longer I can go before I need a break.

The William Henry Harrison one was about the right length for someone who was only President for 30 days.  But, I learned a bit more about his career before becoming President and it has a lot on the election of 1840, which was a fun campaign year.

After that, I read Edward Crapol's John Tyler: The Accidental President.  Pretty solid account of his life, but with maybe not enough pre-Presidency and domestic policy.  It focuses a lot on his foreign policy, which was interesting and the author makes the case for Tyler being a lot more relevant/important than he is typically given credit for, especially with respect to Hawaii, Texas, and China.

About to start Robert Merry's A Country of Vast Designs: James K. Polk, the Mexican War, and the Conquest of the American Continent.  At least Polk is a bit of a big one to keep the run going.  Surprised I haven't read a bio on Polk before.
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:blackdot:

 
I just finished "I, Ripper" by Stephen Hunter (the guy who writes the Bob Lee Swagger novels, among others). It's about - shocker! - Jack the Ripper. It's told in the form of diary entries and letters. I saw one big twist towards the end coming from way early (a big deal, as I usually miss a lot), and not another, smaller twist which seemed to me to make zero difference to the story. In any case, it was enjoyable but very violent (Ripper journalizes in great deal his murders). 

Next, an out-of-left-field review of a book called Desperation Road by an author named Michael Farris Smith has me wanting to try it. After that, I think I'll tackle Jeff VanderMeer's Southern Reach Trilogy which has been on my radar too long without trying it.

 
El Floppo said:
when do you guys do your reading?
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I read for an hour or two or three in the evening if work is going normally, and some on the weekends (that can vary wildly from 2-3 hours to most of the weekend). I'm also going on vacation in a little over a week and will burn through a couple of books at least.

But I live alone and am probably not typical.

It also depends on WHAT I'm reading. If it's something I've really anticipated, I'll take a day off work just to read the book.

 
El Floppo said:
when do you guys do your reading?
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I should read more in the evening like UH instead of watching dreck tv or sports.  But I go to bed at 9:30 and generally read for 30 minutes to an hour depending on my twitter reading. :bag:    On vacation I'll go through a book generally, though having a 12 year old son means way more playing in the pool than reading beside it. :)

 
I read IT when it first came out. I am currently listening to it in anticipation of the movie. I do like this book a lot but I just know the disappointing ending is coming. I also think they could have found a better guy to do the reading.

 
Recently finished The Rum Diary by Hunter S. Thompson. Relatively short, easy and good read. Somewhat auto-biographical account of his days writing for the newspaper in Puerto Rico in the 60's.

 
prosopis said:
I read IT when it first came out. I am currently listening to it in anticipation of the movie. I do like this book a lot but I just know the disappointing ending is coming. I also think they could have found a better guy to do the reading.
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I'm doing the same thing right now and think that the narrator (Steven Weber) has done a very good job. I've never read the book before, but the first 41 hours of the 45 hour book have been pretty enjoyable.

 
Just started "The Sellout" by Paul Beatty. It is a very amusing novel on race and poverty in a farm community just outside LA.

Paul Beatty's The Sellout showcases a comic genius at the top of his game. A biting satire about a young man's isolated upbringing and the race trial that sends him to the Supreme Court, it challenges the sacred tenets of the United States Constitution, urban life, the civil rights movement, the father-son relationship, and the holy grail of racial equality—the black Chinese restaurant.

Born in the "agrarian ghetto" of Dickens—on the southern outskirts of Los Angeles—the narrator of The Sellout resigns himself to the fate of lower-middle-class Californians: "I'd die in the same bedroom I'd grown up in, looking up at the cracks in the stucco ceiling that've been there since '68 quake." Raised by a single father, a controversial sociologist, he spent his childhood as the subject in racially charged psychological studies. He is led to believe that his father's pioneering work will result in a memoir that will solve his family's financial woes, but when his father is killed in a police shoot-out, he realizes there never was a memoir. All that's left is the bill for a drive-thru funeral.

Fueled by this deceit and the general disrepair of his hometown, the narrator sets out to right another wrong: Dickens has literally been removed from the map to save California from further embarrassment. Enlisting the help of the town's most famous resident—the last surviving Little Rascal, Hominy Jenkins—he initiates the most outrageous action conceivable: reinstating slavery and segregating the local high school, which lands him in the Supreme Court.
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Native said:
Just read Here be Dragons by Sharon Kay Penman...
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Big fan of Ms Penman, she does a great job humanising and building believable character and motivations for well known historical figures without taking liberties with known facts.  The other Wales books and the books on the Plantagenet kings are similarly well done.

 
Ash said:
Big fan of Ms Penman, she does a great job humanising and building believable character and motivations for well known historical figures without taking liberties with known facts.  The other Wales books and the books on the Plantagenet kings are similarly well done.
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Did you read The Sunne in Splendour? How did it compare to Dragons?  

I've been eyeing it for a while...

 
prosopis said:
I read IT when it first came out. I am currently listening to it in anticipation of the movie. I do like this book a lot but I just know the disappointing ending is coming. I also think they could have found a better guy to do the reading.
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Listening to and maybe a third through NOS4A2. So far this is just as creepy as anything I can remember King writing.

Just finished King's Mr Mercedes which was really good, but kind of different for a King book. It kind of reminded me of a cross between Michael Connelly and Dean Koontz. Before that was Heart Shaped Box, recommended on here.

 
prosopis said:
I read IT when it first came out. I am currently listening to it in anticipation of the movie. I do like this book a lot but I just know the disappointing ending is coming. I also think they could have found a better guy to do the reading.
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I read it when it first came out.  I am rereading it now in anticipation of the movie.

 
The Hepatitis bathtub and other stories by NOFX. Entertaining as hell - pretty much what you would expect an autobiography of a punk rock band to be. Mixed in with all the craziness are some poignant, touching moments. Definitely worth a read.

I'm a big fan of them, so that probably helps too.

 
Recently reread The Passage by Justin Cronin as part of a reading of the complete trilogy.  I had forgotten much of the last 1/4th of the story.  Really good book, just a smart, well written apocalypse and post- with a "Holy crap" ending.

Now reading Arcadia by Iain Pears.  Only about 1/5th of the way through, but if you like the multiple stories that tie together conceit, he does a good job of it.

 
facook said:
Recently reread The Passage by Justin Cronin as part of a reading of the complete trilogy.  I had forgotten much of the last 1/4th of the story.  Really good book, just a smart, well written apocalypse and post- with a "Holy crap" ending.

Now reading Arcadia by Iain Pears.  Only about 1/5th of the way through, but if you like the multiple stories that tie together conceit, he does a good job of it.
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Wow, didn't realize the third book was out, have to jump on that.

Currently reading Storm of Steel by Ernst Junger. About his time in the trenches in WWI

 
Anyone read a good one on the Manhattan Project or Robert Oppenheimer that they would recommend?  Planning a trip to Los Alamos this summer, and interested in reading something before I head out there.

(Before judging my travel plans, I realize there is not a lot to do in Los Alamos; just a day trip while visiting my wife's family in New Mexico.)

...Oh, and finished the next leg in my Presidential bio quest, Robert Rayback's "Millard Fillmore."  I came away respecting him as a bit of an underrated President (far from great, but closer to mediocre than the very bottom). He did what he could to hold the country together, even if it meant sacrificing both personal and party interests.  Taking a break with the "Why the Caged Bird Sings" before moving on to Pierce.

 
Don Quixote said:
Anyone read a good one on the Manhattan Project or Robert Oppenheimer that they would recommend?  Planning a trip to Los Alamos this summer, and interested in reading something before I head out there.

(Before judging my travel plans, I realize there is not a lot to do in Los Alamos; just a day trip while visiting my wife's family in New Mexico.)

...Oh, and finished the next leg in my Presidential bio quest, Robert Rayback's "Millard Fillmore."  I came away respecting him as a bit of an underrated President (far from great, but closer to mediocre than the very bottom). He did what he could to hold the country together, even if it meant sacrificing both personal and party interests.  Taking a break with the "Why the Caged Bird Sings" before moving on to Pierce.
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Haven't read it, but on my to do list:

American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer https://www.amazon.com/dp/0375726268/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_OlxlzbK9E57N2

 
Uruk-Hai said:
Recent reads:

City Of Mirrors  Thoroughly enjoyed it. I didn't mind the Fanning interlude as much as some did, though he got a little too mustache-twirly at times. I think this a fine ending to a very good series with good payoffs for the main characters.

End Of Watch  This was the final book in King's Mr Mercedes series. I thought this was on a par with the first two, which I'd categorize as "good, but not great". They are fun reads, but King's age is starting to show in how he draws his younger characters.

Speaking of "King" and "younger", I'm now on Joe Hill's The Fireman. I'm about 25% of the way through and really like it.

I was hoping this would lead me right into Scott Lynch's Thorn Of Emberlain in a couple of weeks, but I read the other day the release date has been pushed back to no-one-knows-when. Bummer......

Oh well, Michael Kortya has a new one out and I've enjoyed everything of his I've read so I'm on to that one next. I think he started out writing straight detective/crime novels (I haven't read those), but has branched out into some genre/supernatural stuff over the last several years (which I think I've read all of). 
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I just finished End of Watch.  Not bad.  A little "hokey" in some spots but a decent read overall.  I didn't read the first two books but after some Google research, I was good to go for this one.

 
Don Quixote said:
Anyone read a good one on the Manhattan Project or Robert Oppenheimer that they would recommend?  Planning a trip to Los Alamos this summer, and interested in reading something before I head out there.

(Before judging my travel plans, I realize there is not a lot to do in Los Alamos; just a day trip while visiting my wife's family in New Mexico.)
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I read Richard Rhodes' book shortly after it came out in paperback 30 years ago.   It won him a Pulitzer back then but I don't know if there have been any new sources declassified since then.  I vaguely remember it as being very readable in spite of the dense subject matter.

 
Eephus said:
I read Richard Rhodes' book shortly after it came out in paperback 30 years ago.   It won him a Pulitzer back then but I don't know if there have been any new sources declassified since then.  I vaguely remember it as being very readable in spite of the dense subject matter.
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Thanks. I'll check that one out.

 
Just finished Justin Cronin's City of Mirrors. A very satisfying ending to the trilogy. Really enjoyed the ending with one minor question that I thought would get answered.

Why didn't he finish the Michael story line? He finished all the other ones.
 
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Last night I started Chabon's lastest, Moonglow. Pretty good so far.

Amazon description:
 

A novel of truth and lies, family legends, and existential adventure—and the forces that work to destroy us.

In 1989, fresh from the publication of his first novel, The Mysteries of Pittsburgh, Michael Chabon traveled to his mother’s home in Oakland, California, to visit his terminally ill grandfather. Tongue loosened by powerful painkillers, memory stirred by the imminence of death, Chabon’s grandfather shared recollections and told stories the younger man had never heard before, uncovering bits and pieces of a history long buried and forgotten. That dreamlike week of revelations forms the basis for the novel Moonglow, the latest feat of legerdemain from Pulitzer Prize-winning author Michael Chabon.
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Swing 51 said:
Last night I started Chabon's lastest, Moonglow. Pretty good so far.

Amazon description:
 
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I read, and posted, about that one in here earlier this year.  Loved that book.

Since I know you are in the area, Wernher von Braun is buried at Ivy Hill Cemetery in Alexandria. There's often some kind of model rocket that people have left there.  Cool to check out (cool to me, anyway).

 
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Reading Catherine the Great among other items right now.  The author here felt they must include everything they researched.  Fascinating woman and life, but bogs down and I can't keep track of all the Russian names.

Along with this reading all kinds of pure trash - fantasy, litRPG.  Some of them are pretty darn entertaining.  I feel like I'm reading the equivalent of the Enquirer - I should read better, but they're addicting as all hell.

 
I can't recall where I left off here, but some recent reads include:

The Lost City Of Z - true story about a British explorer and his trips to the Amazon in the early 20th century. It's sort of in the vein of Erik Larsen's stuff and was entertaining enough, though weirdly paced. I think a movie was just made based on it.

Gwendy's Button Box by Stephen King & Richard Chizmar. Short story/novella/whatever, but NOT a full-length. I liked it. Which led me to.....

A Long December by Richard Chizmar. This is a (big) collection of short stories/novellas/whatevers. I'm about half way through. Many of the tales have some sort of Hitchcock/Serling twist near the end and sometimes it gets repetitive, but there's enough variety here to keep me reading. There's very little - if any - "supernatural" stuff going on.

Oh, I read I, Ripper by Stephen Hunter a while back (he wrote the Bob Lee Swagger novels, among others). It's structured as an alternating series of journal entries by a journalist and by Jack The Ripper himself (along with some by one of the hookers working when this happened). There are some extremely gory parts so, if that's not your thing, buyer beware. Overall, I thought it was an entertaining read and a nice departure for Hunter. 

 
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