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

[Eephus]

I finally made it through Wilton Barnhardt's 850 page tome Gospel, a novel about the search for a First Century AD Gospel according to St. Matthias.  Barnhardt is a wonderful writer (his 1970s coming-of-age novel Emma Who Saved My Life is fantastic) and could never write something bad but Gospel suffered from too many historical sidebars.  It's as if he couldn't bear to edit out any of his research.

I'm about a third of the way through Jonathan Eig's 2017 biography of Muhammed Ali.  Ali is one of the most widely discussed figures of our time but Eig is able to write about the man  while still putting the legend in historical context.  It reads really fast which is a nice chaser after the dense Gospel.

 

[Gordo]

Finished up Lonesome Dove a couple weeks ago. Almost through The Count of Monte Cristo. Both excellent, not sure how I have reached the age of 44 without having read either of them.

Ready Player One is up next.

 

[prosopis]

Reading Strange Weather by Joe Hill. Four Novellas much like his fathers Different Seasons. First tale was a good read.

 

[BLOCKED_PUNT]

Currently reading Origin by Dan Brown 

 

[Tom Servo]

Anybody read The Three-Body Problem by Liu Cixin? I downloaded a sample for my Nook and just the part that takes place during the Cultural Revolution is very good.

 

[Barry]

The Three Body Problem. sci-fi that takes place during the cultural revolution in China. not much character development and no protagonist. it's full of physics. strange but I liked it a lot.

 

[arrow1]

Reading Strange Weather by Joe Hill. Four Novellas much like his fathers Different Seasons. First tale was a good read.

Just started this a couple of days ago  

 

[facook]

Anybody read The Three-Body Problem by Liu Cixin? I downloaded a sample for my Nook and just the part that takes place during the Cultural Revolution is very good.

I made it about 3/4 of the way through.  I think it is intended for people much smarter than me.

 

[Uruk-Hai]

Reading Strange Weather by Joe Hill. Four Novellas much like his fathers Different Seasons. First tale was a good read.

That was by far the least "strange" story in the book. 

 

[facook]

Just started this a couple of days ago  

Reading Strange Weather by Joe Hill. Four Novellas much like his fathers Different Seasons. First tale was a good read.

Interested on hearing your thoughts when you're done. Hill's longer works are fun, but I think he's even better at short fiction. He's like a cross between his dad and George Saunders.

Finished this last week.  I really liked it as a whole.  I'll put my specific thoughts below, but in general I'd say Joe is best at creating characters that matter to me.  I love them or hate them or empathize with them and often they make me uncomfortable because I see myself in them.

Spoiler

I think I like Snapshot the best, just from a creepiness and fun standpoint.

Loaded was a trip, especially in this day.  Pretty easy to see how a situation like that could escalate.

Aloft was just weird.  I felt for (and identified with) the main character being a loser and hung up on a girl, but the rest of it was awfully strange.  Still hard to dislike it because Hill is so good.

Rain was incredibly depressing but interesting.  I was most impressed with how well the protagonist was written.  If I picked that up as a stand alone novel written by an unknown author no way I'd check it out.  Just not my normal cup of tea.  Hill did it well though.

 

[Uruk-Hai]

Finished this last week.  I really liked it as a whole.  I'll put my specific thoughts below, but in general I'd say Joe is best at creating characters that matter to me.  I love them or hate them or empathize with them and often they make me uncomfortable because I see myself in them.

Spoiler

I think I like Snapshot the best, just from a creepiness and fun standpoint.

Loaded was a trip, especially in this day.  Pretty easy to see how a situation like that could escalate.

Aloft was just weird.  I felt for (and identified with) the main character being a loser and hung up on a girl, but the rest of it was awfully strange.  Still hard to dislike it because Hill is so good.

Rain was incredibly depressing but interesting.  I was most impressed with how well the protagonist was written.  If I picked that up as a stand alone novel written by an unknown author no way I'd check it out.  Just not my normal cup of tea.  Hill did it well though.


  Reveal hidden contents

 I probably liked them in the opposite order that you did, but enjoyed them all. I agree with all of your points, though. Rain's protagonist, in particular, was really well-done.

 

[Good Posting Judge]

Just started Tinkers. This will be my livre-de-jour on the can for the next few visits until I finish it.

This was one of my vacation reads (I'm almost finished), oddly enough. Harding's style is very digressive and there's only a strand of narrative, but he can really write beautifully. 

 

[El Floppo]

This was one of my vacation reads (I'm almost finished), oddly enough. Harding's style is very digressive and there's only a strand of narrative, but he can really write beautifully. 

I have zero memory of having read that. Which is a little scary.

Read Exit West by Mohsin Hamid while on vacation this last week. Interesting sci-fi-ish concept about immigration, and some really lovely insights into small moments that happen in relationships, especially as they evolve. Prose was tight, but the overall story- in spite of the concept- was slight. 

 

[Idiot Boxer]

Not sure if it's been mentioned, but The Hate U Give is a fantastic book and an important read.

 

[Don Quixote]

Currently on Robert Merry's William McKinley: Architect of the American Century.   I read Merry's "A Country of Vast Designs" on James K. Polk, oh, 14 Presidents ago.  I timed this one pretty good, as Merry's book on McKinley just came out last fall.  So far, as well-written and as good of a book as his Polk book was.  I had read Scott Miller's The President and the Assassin a few years back, also on McKinley, but that focused a bit more on the assassination and the anarchist movement.  Merry's book is a more traditional biography.

Finished this one.  I think it dragged a little bit relative to Merry's book on Polk, but still a solid bio.  

TR is probably the President that I've read the most about (huge fan of Edmund Morris's trilogy).  I did not want to skip him though.  I had never read David McCullough's Mornings on Horseback, so I'm giving that one a go.  It focuses on TR's youth.  It may overlap too much with Morris's The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt for me to learn too much, but I'm a fan of McCullough.

On the fiction side, I recently finished Ishiguro's The Remains of the Day.  Such a well-written novel.  Not sure what took me so long to get around to reading it.

Just started Andrew Sean Greer's Less, which just won the Pulitzer Prize.  I remember reading pretty good reviews when it came out and had it on my list, but moved it to the top with the Pulitzer announcement.  It is pretty rare for a comedic novel to win that.

 

[MindCrime]

You’re in for a treat. IMO it’s his best novel and it’s in my top 10-15 ever read.

So i finally finished Cryptonomicon, and yes, it was an excellent book. I will say that it was tough to follow at first with all of the intertwined characters from different time periods, especially since i tend to read 20 pages here, 20 pages there throughout a week. I’m glad i read this on my kindle so i could open Xray and get a reminder if who the characters were in the beginning of the book.

This was definitely an epic novel, but a smart novel as well. A fun read if you have the time and patience, as some parts come off like a college course in cryptography or electronics. 

 

[bigmarc27]

Is this not the perfect "next" HBO series? Seriously.

Knowing nothing about this, I looked it up and it was described as young adult?  Like teen stuff?  Is that right?

Can you give me a quick rundown on these?

 

[Uruk-Hai]

On to Mr Shivers by Robert Jackson Bennett. I'm on a mission to clean up some stuff that's been on my Kindle forever.

I think was the second novel of Bennett's I've read. Both were good - he can write really evocative scenes - but something about his books leave me a little cold. I don't know what it is; just feels like something's missing (or, more likely, I'm missing something).

After that, I read a couple of music books that were ok but nothing I'd recommend.

Now, I'm reading Erik Larsen's Dead Wake about the sinking of the Lusitania.

Then it'll be on to King's new one - The Outsider

 

[trogg78]

I’m about halfway done with “Wrath” by John Gwynne. This is the fourth and final book in the Faithful and the fallen series. An epic fantasy of good vs evil ala LOTR or GOT.

next up is “Good night stories for rebel girls : 100 tales of extraordinary women”

 

[facook]

So i finally finished Cryptonomicon, and yes, it was an excellent book. I will say that it was tough to follow at first with all of the intertwined characters from different time periods, especially since i tend to read 20 pages here, 20 pages there throughout a week. I’m glad i read this on my kindle so i could open Xray and get a reminder if who the characters were in the beginning of the book.

This was definitely an epic novel, but a smart novel as well. A fun read if you have the time and patience, as some parts come off like a college course in cryptography or electronics. 

Don't disagree with any of this.  I loved the intertwining characters and periods and the "learnin" stuff was enough to stoke my nerd fire without being over the top for me.  Which I can't say about a few of his other books.  This one is my favorite of his.

 

[Spike]

I’m about halfway done with “Wrath” by John Gwynne. This is the fourth and final book in the Faithful and the fallen series. An epic fantasy of good vs evil ala LOTR or GOT.

next up is “Good night stories for rebel girls : 100 tales of extraordinary women”

Really liked the “Faithful and the Fallen” series. 

 

[Worm]

Knowing nothing about this, I looked it up and it was described as young adult?  Like teen stuff?  Is that right?

Can you give me a quick rundown on these?

I would not have guessed that as a description.

The only connection to teen-related material that I see is a loose connection to the Hunger Games in the first book, Red Rising. Without much spoilers, there is a similar type of "tournament" that happens in the first Hunger Games.

Other than that, I would describe the series as a political space fantasy/adventure. The character development is fantastic. There are multiple groups/factions working against each other. There are wars and battles in space and on various planets. There are twists and turns. It's just a ton of fun.

 

[jfranco77]

I would not have guessed that as a description.

The only connection to teen-related material that I see is a loose connection to the Hunger Games in the first book, Red Rising. Without much spoilers, there is a similar type of "tournament" that happens in the first Hunger Games.

Other than that, I would describe the series as a political space fantasy/adventure. The character development is fantastic. There are multiple groups/factions working against each other. There are wars and battles in space and on various planets. There are twists and turns. It's just a ton of fun.

Interesting. I read the first one, I was happy with it, and decided not to read the rest. I also thought it was kind of YA though I am not sure why I thought that. I figured that all the other YA series eventually sucked even after a good book 1 (Hunger Games, Divergent), so I'd just cash out after 1 book in this series and be happy. Maybe I should re-think reading the rest of the series.

 

[Worm]

Interesting. I read the first one, I was happy with it, and decided not to read the rest. I also thought it was kind of YA though I am not sure why I thought that. I figured that all the other YA series eventually sucked even after a good book 1 (Hunger Games, Divergent), so I'd just cash out after 1 book in this series and be happy. Maybe I should re-think reading the rest of the series.

I think it's because the main characters were young-ish in the first book. The rest of the series follows them as adults, and the series definitely shifts in it's theme.

 

[trogg78]

Really liked the “Faithful and the Fallen” series. 

I heard about it from this thread, but I don’t remember who. If it was you, many great thanks. I have really enjoyed it.

 

[Spike]

I heard about it from this thread, but I don’t remember who. If it was you, many great thanks. I have really enjoyed it.

Thanks but it was not me. I heard about it from this thread as you did. 

 

[joker]

I just downloaded all the audiobooks for Faithful and the Fallen, and will be starting them shortly.

 

[Jefferson the Caregiver]

"The Ballad of the Whiskey Robber" by Julian Rubinstein.  It's a true story about a hockey goalie for the pro team in Budapest who was also a professional thief.  Great book, and it's got all of my favorite words.

Good recommendation, I finished this one quickly. Fun read

 

[Lehigh98]

Wrapping up Red Rising and deciding whether to go right to the second book in the series or start on SK's The Outsider which just became available from my preorder.  Will probably continue the momentum with Red Rising.  I'm chaperoning a 6th grade class trip to Hershey Park tomorrow so hoping to zone out on the bus rides and do some "reading"... I love Audible,  My library is getting up there...

Brave New World - Aldous Huxley - 8 hrs and 5 mins

Artemis - Andy Weir - 8 hrs and 59 mins

The Martian - Andy Weir - 10 hrs and 53 mins

English Grammar Boot Camp - Anne Curzan - 12 hrs and 26 mins

Rewinder - Brett Battles - 7 hrs and 48 mins

Cosmos - Carl Sagan - 14 hrs and 31 mins

Fight Club - Chuck Palahniuk - 5 hrs and 34 mins

The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August - Claire North - 12 hrs and 10 mins

Soccer iQ (2 Book Series) - Dan Blank - 5 hrs and 53 mins

David Foster Wallace: In His Own Words - David Foster Wallace - 8 hrs and 52 mins

All These Worlds: Bobiverse, Book 3 - Dennis E. Taylor - 7 hrs and 55 mins

For We Are Many: Bobiverse, Book 2 - Dennis E. Taylor - 8 hrs and 58 mins

We Are Legion (We Are Bob): Bobiverse, Book 1 - Dennis E. Taylor - 9 hrs and 30 mins

Ready Player One - Ernest Cline - 15 hrs and 46 mins

The Spaceship Next Door - Gene Doucette - 11 hrs and 35 mins

At the Mountains of Madness - H. P. Lovecraft - 4 hrs and 48 mins

Call of Cthulhu and Other Stories - H. P. Lovecraft - 4 hrs and 22 mins

Dust: Silo Saga, Book 3 - Hugh Howey - 12 hrs and 34 mins

Shift Omnibus Edition: Shift 1-3, Silo Saga - Hugh Howey - 18 hrs and 22 mins

Wool: Silo, #1; Wool, #1-5 - Hugh Howey - 17 hrs and 43 mins

Foundation - Isaac Asimov - 8 hrs and 36 mins

Leviathan Wakes - James S. A. Corey - 19 hrs and 10 mins

Get Well Soon: History’s Worst Plagues and the Heroes Who Fought Them - Jennifer Wright - 7 hrs and 43 mins

The Forever War - Joe Haldeman - 9 hrs and 19 mins

IQ - Joe Ide - 9 hrs and 8 mins

The City of Mirrors: The Passage Trilogy, Book Three - Justin Cronin - 29 hrs and 29 mins

The Passage: The Passage Trilogy, Book 1 - Justin Cronin - 36 hrs and 52 mins

The Twelve: A Novel: The Passage Trilogy, Book 2 - Justin Cronin - 26 hrs and 26 mins

Replay - Ken Grimwood - 11 hrs and 25 mins

Slaughterhouse-Five - Kurt Vonnegut - 5 hrs and 13 mins

Stuff Matters: Exploring the Marvelous Materials That Shape Our Man-Made World - Mark Miodownik - 6 hrs and 34 mins

All Systems Red - Martha Wells - 3 hrs and 17 mins

Lovecraft Country: A Novel - Matt Ruff - 12 hrs and 14 mins

The Lincoln Lawyer - Michael Connelly - 11 hrs and 35 mins

Rising Sun: A Novel - Michael Crichton - 11 hrs and 45 mins

The Andromeda Strain - Michael Crichton - 8 hrs and 15 mins

The Great Train Robbery - Michael Crichton - 8 hrs and 39 mins

Astrophysics for People in a Hurry - Neil deGrasse Tyson - 3 hrs and 41 mins

My Favorite Universe - Neil deGrasse Tyson - 6 hrs and 14 mins

The Canterville Ghost - Oscar Wilde - 1 hr and 12 mins

The Picture of Dorian Gray - Oscar Wilde - 7 hrs and 48 mins

Golden Son: Book II of the Red Rising Trilogy - Pierce Brown - 19 hrs and 2 mins

Red Rising - Pierce Brown - 16 hrs and 12 mins

Twelve Angry Men - Reginald Rose - 1 hr and 50 mins

Hell House - Richard Matheson - 9 hrs and 15 mins

Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book: The Mowgli Stories - Rudyard Kipling - 2 hrs and 32 mins

Childhood's End - Sir Arthur C. Clarke - 7 hrs and 47 mins

Rendezvous with Rama - Sir Arthur C. Clarke - 9 hrs and 4 mins

11-22-63: A Novel - Stephen King - 30 hrs and 44 mins

End of Watch: A Novel - Stephen King - 12 hrs and 54 mins

Finders Keepers: A Novel - Stephen King - 13 hrs and 5 mins

It - Stephen King - 44 hrs and 55 mins

Mr. Mercedes: A Novel - Stephen King - 14 hrs and 22 mins

Song of Susannah: The Dark Tower VI - Stephen King - 14 hrs and 10 mins

The Bazaar of Bad Dreams: Stories - Stephen King - 20 hrs and 17 mins

The Dark Tower I: The Gunslinger - Stephen King - 7 hrs and 20 mins

The Dark Tower II: The Drawing of the Three - Stephen King - 12 hrs and 47 mins

The Dark Tower III: The Waste Lands - Stephen King - 18 hrs and 14 mins

The Dark Tower IV: Wizard and Glass - Stephen King - 27 hrs and 45 mins

The Dark Tower: The Dark Tower VII - Stephen King - 28 hrs and 10 mins

The Outsider - Stephen King - 18 hrs and 39 mins

The Stand - Stephen King - 47 hrs and 52 mins

The Wind Through the Keyhole: The Dark Tower - Stephen King - 10 hrs and 29 mins

Wolves of the Calla: Dark Tower V - Stephen King - 26 hrs and 20 mins

The Art of War: The Strategy of Sun Tzu - Sun Tzu - 2 hrs and 3 mins

Forensics: What Bugs, Burns, Prints, DNA, and More Tell Us About Crime - Val McDermid - 11 hrs and 20 mins

 

[beer 30]

Just finished Extreme Ownership. Good book about leadership as brought to you by two ex-Navy SEAL's and what they learned from the teams and their time together in Ramadi Iraq when it was the center of the insurgency. Even better podcast series.

 

[prosopis]

Any audible book recommendations? 

I just finished Killing Kennedy which I really liked. It was just the facts without much conspiracy stuff.

I am about 100 pages into Stephen King's new one the Outsider and  I am LOVING it.

I like to listen to something when driving so I thought I would ask for an audible recommendation. In the past I tend to listen to books I read years ago that I really liked but I am open to some new stuff. I recently listened to Michelle McNamara's I'll Be Gone in the Dark. This was a fun listen since the Golden State Killer was recently caught.

 

[Sand]

Anybody read The Three-Body Problem by Liu Cixin? I downloaded a sample for my Nook and just the part that takes place during the Cultural Revolution is very good.

Yes.  Instant classic.  It really is that good.

Knowing nothing about this, I looked it up and it was described as young adult?  Like teen stuff?  Is that right?

Can you give me a quick rundown on these?

I wouldn't consider these YA at all.   Rundown: they're pretty awesome.

Artemis - Andy Weir - 8 hrs and 59 mins - Ok, not nearly as good as his first.

The Martian - Andy Weir - 10 hrs and 53 mins - his first and might be the best book this decade.

We Are Legion (We Are Bob): Bobiverse, Book 1 - Dennis E. Taylor - 9 hrs and 30 mins - Might be the most fun set of books this decade.

Ready Player One - Ernest Cline - 15 hrs and 46 mins - If you're an 80s/90s kid, you'll love this.

Leviathan Wakes - James S. A. Corey - 19 hrs and 10 mins - best space opera out there.

Get Well Soon: History’s Worst Plagues and the Heroes Who Fought Them - Jennifer Wright - 7 hrs and 43 mins

The Andromeda Strain - Michael Crichton - 8 hrs and 15 mins - Loved this one.

Mr. Mercedes: A Novel - Stephen King - 14 hrs and 22 mins - Good all the way through.

 

[krista4]

I don't like to make back-to-back posts, but I also don't like see this thread fall as far as it has...  reading two books currently.

On the Kindle, I've got Jennifer Egan's Manhattan Beach.  Historical fiction set in NYC during WWII.  Protagonist takes up wartime work in the shipyard.  Seemed up my alley given the historical fiction bent, has a bit of a noir vibe, and it is from a Pulitzer Prize winning author.  About halfway through it.  It is interesting, but not grabbing me as much as I hoped.  (I'd certainly put "Sing, Unburied, Sing" above it as far as fall fiction releases go.)

On hardcover, I had pre-ordered Ron Chernow's Grant, and just got that last week.  Grant was up next in my quest to read all Presidential biographies in consecutive order, and it timed with the release of Chernow's book.  Although I've read Jean Edward Smith's excellent bio on him, I could not pass up the chance to read Chernow's take, as he's my favorite biographer going.  I do most of my reading on the Kindle these days, but felt the need for the hardcover for this one.  Up to Chernow's standards so far.

I"m way behind on this thread, but appreciate the recommendation on Egan.  Just added it on Kindle.

Since I'm a billion pages behind, I'm wondering if anyone has discussed A Little Life here?  I'm still devastated by it several months after finishing it, but I'm not sure I'd recommend it.

I also read The Nix recently, which I'm certain I added based on recommendations here, but I was not at all impressed.

 

[krista4]

Recently finished Here I Am by Jonathan Safran Foer.  Novel follows a Jewish family in DC in a time when Israel is being destroyed.  Their internal strife, how they react to the crisis, and how the react to how other react to the crisis.  I was hoping for more on the actual danger to and in Israel, but the family drama was enthralling and in some cases just devastating to me.  The guy knows how to write characters and dialogue.  Could have been just depressing, but there were enough chuckles in the family dynamics to keep it from going there, and in the end I was glad I read it.  Definitely would recommend.

One of my dearest friends just recommended this one to me - next on the list!

 

[krista4]

Rolling on with the Presidents...  After Cleveland, I went with the American President Series book on Benjamin Harrison.  A pretty slim volume, as most in that series are, but there are not many options on Harrison.  It does not have the space for a whole lot of detail, but a decent account on Harrison's life.

Currently on Robert Merry's William McKinley: Architect of the American Century.   I read Merry's "A Country of Vast Designs" on James K. Polk, oh, 14 Presidents ago.  I timed this one pretty good, as Merry's book on McKinley just came out last fall.  So far, as well-written and as good of a book as his Polk book was.  I had read Scott Miller's The President and the Assassin a few years back, also on McKinley, but that focused a bit more on the assassination and the anarchist movement.  Merry's book is a more traditional biography.

Just wanted to say I'm enjoying your reviews of this stuff.  So much of this thread is sci-fi/fantasy, and it's great to read about something different.

 

[krista4]

On the fiction side, I recently finished Ishiguro's The Remains of the Day.  Such a well-written novel.  Not sure what took me so long to get around to reading it.

Not only a gorgeous book but one of the very few instances where I think a movie did it justice.  See the film if you haven't.  There is an Anthony Hopkins moment that I think might be the best instance of acting I've ever seen.

 

[Don Quixote]

I"m way behind on this thread, but appreciate the recommendation on Egan.  Just added it on Kindle.

Since I'm a billion pages behind, I'm wondering if anyone has discussed A Little Life here?  I'm still devastated by it several months after finishing it, but I'm not sure I'd recommend it.

I also read The Nix recently, which I'm certain I added based on recommendations here, but I was not at all impressed.

I read “A Little Life” a couple of years ago. I probably mentioned it here. That was an amazing book — it stuck with me for awhile. Not an easy or fun one to read given the situations that it deals with though.

I read “The Nix” and mentioned that one here too. I liked that one. I thought it was a pretty entertaining read. From a longer perspective, it hasn’t stuck with me as much as A Little Life or some other books though.

 

[Joe Mammy]

About to polish off Brad Meltzer's "The Escape Artist" (pretty good) and then dive into Nesbo's newest "MacBeth". I've become a huge Nesbo fan and have devoured all his pulp. 

 

[Don Quixote]

TR is probably the President that I've read the most about (huge fan of Edmund Morris's trilogy).  I did not want to skip him though.  I had never read David McCullough's Mornings on Horseback, so I'm giving that one a go.  It focuses on TR's youth.  It may overlap too much with Morris's The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt for me to learn too much, but I'm a fan of McCullough.

Just started Andrew Sean Greer's Less, which just won the Pulitzer Prize.  I remember reading pretty good reviews when it came out and had it on my list, but moved it to the top with the Pulitzer announcement.  It is pretty rare for a comedic novel to win that.

Finished these books. "Less" was okay.  The plot centers around an author who is turning 50 and whose former lover is getting married, so he goes on an around the world trip taking minor speaking engagements to get away.  It had some entertaining moments and bits, but I thought it dragged a bit too much in parts.  I would have given the Pulitzer to George Saunders' Lincoln in the Bardo or Jesmyn Ward's Sing, Unburied, Sing over it, but they don't give me a vote.

"Mornings on Horseback" was good, but, as I feared, it did end up overlapping a lot with Edmund Morris's The Rise of TR.  McCullough goes a bit more into his family, including his brother and sisters than Morris; so, that part was a bit fresh.  Maybe a President that I could have skipped though.

For Taft, I already read Doris Kearns Goodwin's The Bully Pulpit (which is a twin book of TR and Taft).  So, I'm going with Jeffrey Rosen's bio on Taft from the American President Series.  Rosen is a law professor at GW Law (since I went to GW undergrad and my wife went to GW Law, I felt a particular kinship with the author).  I'm about halfway through it so far.  Usually a bit weird for a law professor to write a Presidential bio, but it works well given how much of Taft's life was spent as a judge, and that is the part of his life that I probably know the least about.

 

[facook]

About to polish off Brad Meltzer's "The Escape Artist" (pretty good) and then dive into Nesbo's newest "MacBeth". I've become a huge Nesbo fan and have devoured all his pulp. 

Stick with MacBeth.  The first 70 pages or so were some of the most boring character set up I can remember.  Worth the read after that though.

 

[kupcho1]

I'm enjoying The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O. by Neal Stephenson and Nicole Galland immensely.  

The story follows the members of a secret U.S. government agency known as the Department of Diachronic Operations (D.O.D.O.) as they attempt to change history through the use of magic. 

RIYL speculative fiction.

 

[Sand]

Greetings all.  Blue light special day!  



Ok, since there's no blue light smilie  , a blue sofa will have to do.

Today (and only today) a two trilogies from Will Wight are free.  IMO, if you haven't read Wight, I consider him to be about on par with Sanderson.  Really, he's that good.  Wildly imaginative guy.

Traveler's Gate Trilogy - Free!  His first set of books.  I found the first book to show the signs of the first book published by someone, but the writing quality gets awesome into the second book.  The world he creates is pretty amazing.

Cradle Trilogy - His latest. Completely different than above, but unputdownable.  

Personally I think his Elder Empire books are his best.  Here he writes two books, one from each side of a conflict, happening over the same time frame.  It's brilliant and has to be insanely difficult to make sure everything meshes.  Sadly these aren't free, but the final two will be his next releases.  Can't wait.

 

[beer 30]

Any audible book recommendations? 

I just finished Killing Kennedy which I really liked. It was just the facts without much conspiracy stuff.

I am about 100 pages into Stephen King's new one the Outsider and  I am LOVING it.

I like to listen to something when driving so I thought I would ask for an audible recommendation. In the past I tend to listen to books I read years ago that I really liked but I am open to some new stuff. I recently listened to Michelle McNamara's I'll Be Gone in the Dark. This was a fun listen since the Golden State Killer was recently caught.

Into podcasts at all?

 

[drpill]

Greetings all.  Blue light special day!  



Ok, since there's no blue light smilie  , a blue sofa will have to do.

Today (and only today) a two trilogies from Will Wight are free.  IMO, if you haven't read Wight, I consider him to be about on par with Sanderson.  Really, he's that good.  Wildly imaginative guy.

Traveler's Gate Trilogy - Free!  His first set of books.  I found the first book to show the signs of the first book published by someone, but the writing quality gets awesome into the second book.  The world he creates is pretty amazing.

Cradle Trilogy - His latest. Completely different than above, but unputdownable.  

Personally I think his Elder Empire books are his best.  Here he writes two books, one from each side of a conflict, happening over the same time frame.  It's brilliant and has to be insanely difficult to make sure everything meshes.  Sadly these aren't free, but the final two will be his next releases.  Can't wait.

Hey, thanks for the heads up. I downloaded these and I'll check them out. Do you think they would be suitable for a kid aged 13 who is an avid reader and a big fan of Sanderson's Reckoners series?

 

[Sand]

Hey, thanks for the heads up. I downloaded these and I'll check them out. Do you think they would be suitable for a kid aged 13 who is an avid reader and a big fan of Sanderson's Reckoners series?

Yes - I don't remember anything objectionable at all.  The first is about a guy who's good with a sword, so normal fighting stuff.  No sex, no language, etc.  I'd let my 12 year old read them.  

The second is a pretty good coming of age story - he'd probably identify with it quite well.

 

[drpill]

Yes - I don't remember anything objectionable at all.  The first is about a guy who's good with a sword, so normal fighting stuff.  No sex, no language, etc.  I'd let my 12 year old read them.  

The second is a pretty good coming of age story - he'd probably identify with it quite well.

Awesome, thanks. I'm always looking for new stuff to feed his appetite; these should keep him busy for a little while. 

 

[Don Quixote]

On the fiction front, I started Madeline Miller's Circe.  It has been getting pretty strong reviews.  It is in the style of a memoir written by Circe, who is the Greek goddess principally known for turning Odysseus's men into swine in The Odyssey.  I'm only about 25 pages into it so far, so a bit too early to provide comments on it, but I'm looking forward to diving deeper into it.

On nonfiction, I finished the book on William Howard Taft that I was reading.  I read John Milton Cooper's Woodrow Wilson a few years back, and decided that sufficiently covered Wilson for me.  I debated A. Scott Berg's biography, but I didn't think it was worth the reading time at this point.

There are not a whole lot of Warren Harding biographies out there.  I settled on John Dean's (yes, the one from Watergate) book on Harding from the American Presidents Series.  About halfway through it.  He tries to make the argument that Harding was not as bad as people say; I'm not quite there yet, but it's interesting at least.  Only downside is that it was written before the release of the "Jerry" letters.

 

[Don Quixote]

On the fiction front, I started Madeline Miller's Circe.  It has been getting pretty strong reviews.  It is in the style of a memoir written by Circe, who is the Greek goddess principally known for turning Odysseus's men into swine in The Odyssey.  I'm only about 25 pages into it so far, so a bit too early to provide comments on it, but I'm looking forward to diving deeper into it.

There are not a whole lot of Warren Harding biographies out there.  I settled on John Dean's (yes, the one from Watergate) book on Harding from the American Presidents Series.  About halfway through it.  He tries to make the argument that Harding was not as bad as people say; I'm not quite there yet, but it's interesting at least.  Only downside is that it was written before the release of the "Jerry" letters.

I guess I was the last post in here....

"Circe" was great.  Pretty well-written book with a compelling story.  I think it is likely to end up on my favorite of the year list.  I'm going to go with Fatima Farheen Mirza's A Place for Us as my next fiction read. Another one getting pretty good reviews.

I stayed about the same opinion on Dean's Harding book (he makes mention to the forthcoming release of the letters, but says it is doubtful that we will learn anything new from them -- oops).

I read Amity Shlaes' biography on Calvin Coolidge when it came out, so I decided that I was okay on Coolidge.  I also read Herbert Hoover in the White House last year, so I decided I was good on Hoover.

I've read a few things on FDR, such as Jean Edward Smith's bio and Arthur Schlesinger's three volume The Age of Roosevelt series.  I had never read Doris Kearns Goodwin's No Ordinary Time, so I gave that one a read.  That one was great -- a bit more on Eleanor than the other FDR books that I had read, so it felt fresh.

For Truman, I listened to David McCullough's book on audio book over a decade ago.  May see if I can get the dust off that and listen to it again instead of my usual podcasts.

 

[KarmaPolice]

I think a few people in here have said they read and like the series so I will ask here so I don't run into possible spoiler by looking around online.  Last week I started Brimstone from the Agent Pendergast series and I'm about 1/2 way through it.  I have read the first books in the series, but it's been so long that I have very little recollection of what happened.  Anyway, there is a female character - Constance that is his ward at the beginning of this book, but the way she described and some of the things that have been said I assume that she was involved in one of the other books (I would assume Cabinet of Curiosities).   

Anyway, am I right that she was part of the first books, and if so could you give me a brief non-spoiler synopsis on what I should know from the other book?  

Like I said, I know I could look it up, but it seems like as soon as I do that I get spoilers for current or  upcoming books.  

 

[trogg78]

I just finished an excellent hero/fantasy novel “Name of the Wind” by Patrick Rothfuss. I think the best way to describe it is as a more mature/Adult Harry Potter type series. I have requested the next book in the series of the Kingkiller chronicles “the Wise Mans Fear”.

Now ive started a disturbing serial killer novel “Child of God” by Cormac McCarthy.