What are you reading?/Book Recomendations

I'm currently reading, 'The Green and the Grey' by Tim Zahn. It is a science fiction novel set in New York City.


What are you currently reading?


Mod Note: This will be a Sicky thread kept at the very top of Off-Topic so that it is easily found. The purpose of this thread is to make book recommendations and give short reviews of a book you read and liked. Please keep it on topic. This idea came from member RomanTimes and we thank him for this recommendation! Happy Reading, JP5

 

And does anyone have suggestions for a non fiction after I finish up with the Tim Zahn book?

 

My husband just finished "Fighter Pilot" by Robin Olds and his daughter. It's about his life over-all, but covers the Viet Nam war and his career as a fighter pilot. My husband was a pilot from 1968-1973, so this was of great interest to him. Non-fiction

I finished recently "The Help," by Kathryn Stockett. It's fiction, but based on historical facts from the 60's and centered in Jackson, Mississippi. It's currently in the movie theaters and is at the top of the box office for a couple weeks now. The movie does the book justice. If you see the movie, one of the main characters, Hilly, is played by Ron Howard's daughter.

 

I'm reading - How I spent My Summer Vacation - which I wrote
before summer started.I sometimes do dat.Now I have to go back and
check where I may need to tweat a bit.
I think I got the color of a few Bikini wrong originally.

 

Farrell, Greg. Crash of the Titans, Greed, Hubris, The Fall of Merrill Lynch, and the Near-Collapse of Bank of America. New York: Crown Business, 2010. (H)

 

I have finally started The Dark Tower series...

I am about 100 or so into The Gunslinger...

 

How about war and peace.

 

A dance with dragons, George RR Martin. Trying to go slow as who knows how long we will have to wait for the next one.

Just finished Tooth and Nail by Craig DiLouie, which was ok, can't really go wrong with a zombie book for a quick read.

 

Tom Clancy stuff.

 

I read up to "A Storm of Swords" and stopped there. Easily in my top 3 favorite fantasy series of all time, but I am waiting for George to finish the series before I continue. I have a feeling he is going to pull a Robert Jordan.

 

"The Dark Side of Man" by Michael Ghiglieri. I thought it was a very interesting read.

 

I picked up Douglas DC-8 (Great Airliners Series, Vol. 2) at a garage sale for
$15.00 and to buy the series of books is over $200.00.
.

Never flew one, but if it's a book about planes and it's cheap...I'll read it.

Another for the personal library.

As for as non-fiction recommendations, I suggest A Stolen Life by Jaycee Dugard.
It's not "easy reading."
Kidnapped at a young age (11 years old), raped daily...she mothered two children from her captor...until authorities finally caught the guy and reunited Ms. Dugard with her real family.
There are two lessons to be learned from her story...
one is in persevarance, forgiveness and ultimately survival of extreme
trauma....the other lesson is the shocking depravity, and evil some people are capable of ...her captors.

Ultimately good triumphs in her story.

You think you've had it rough?

Read this book and be thankful you were spared what Ms. Dugard endured.

 

I was never a huge fan of fantasy till I read him. It took him like 6 years to put out this book, so I was glad to go back and re-read the first 4 to catch up on story lines (there were so many I completely forgot) before starting Dance of dragons. Storm of swords was awesome, my favorite in the series.

 

I was never a huge fan of fantasy till I read him. It took him like 6 years to put out this book, so I was glad to go back and re-read the first 4 to catch up on story lines (there were so many I completely forgot) before starting Dance of dragons. Storm of swords was awesome, my favorite in the series.

 

Walden, by Henry David Thoreau

Rid yourself of meaningless distractions and today's stimuli overload, reconnect with what is real. Read this book!

 

I don't read complicated books like you guys seem to. I read 'normal' books, lol.

Just finished The Perfect Murder by Brenda Novak. She's like a Mills and Boon writer - although tons better. This book is one in a series of six (although you don't have to read them in order) about a victims charity called The Last Stand.
This story was about a former cop who murdered his wife and step son and faked his own death afterward. The father of the boy goes to TLS for help, and an investigator called Jane (who has her own story in Trust Me) helps him out, and as happens, they have a fling.

A bit of romance and a lot of suspense. Novak is fast becoming one of my favorite authors. Right now I am getting started on The Perfect Liar - another in the series. Can't wait!

 

I'm Re-reading - The Painted Bird -.It's not long but it's hard to get
through.I can't believe some of the stuff being written.I rememeber a
chapter years ago that stayed with me for some time.Like I'll never
forget what the character{ Protagonist } went thru.
I don't remember any of what I've read already.

I started the summer reading a book I always wanted to.
- Going My Own Way - by Gary Crosby.It's the true story by
eldest son Gary about The Real Bing.The one no one knew except
Gary and his siblings.Of course his Mom.
I don't wanna give too much away but Bing had a thing about
following orders and discipline.If you dare broke a Bing house rule
you got the belt/strap.In fact,Gary got the belt most everytime Bing came
home.Bing used to just say as he walked in the door ... 'Go to your
room and assume the position'.The Bing Crosby that walked out the door
of their big home was not at all the same Bing we grew to respect.
He was literally a Jekyl/Hyde personality.

 

Just finished "Collapse" by Jared Diamond. Highly recommended (as well as his other book "Guns, Germs, and Steel").

I just started a horror anthology called "End of the Line."

 

There was an article in Skeptic magazine about one of these books, I don't remember which, but it claims that some of his evidence and reasoning is bunk. I watched the documentary of "Collapse" and I can believe the Skeptic article because he seems to be biased in favor of politically correct ideas.

 

My guess would be the article was probably referencing "Gun, Germs, & Steel", which I really liked. Whether or not you agree with his theories his books are very thought provoking and enjoyable reads.

 

I am re-reading the Dune Series.

 

Wikipedia goes through them. The main contraversy is about Easter Island. Diamond believes in the theory that Easter Island was largely isolated, while many historians claim he's discounting the effects of war and interaction with other civilizations.

I don't think that does much to affect his overall point.

Where I think he goes wrong is in his optimism. He seems to think the rich-people-will-pay-more-for-sustainable-products thing is a positive sign and that the works of NGOs are likely to prevail.
I don't see good evidence for this and I think he adds this optimism either to keep the book from being a downer or to keep himself positive. He has a bias toward bottom-up thinking and this also created the most ridiculous claim he made in "Guns, Germs, and Steel": eventually the New Guinea hunter-gatherers would have helicopters.

So, yeah, he's biased toward positive thinking and bottom-up solutions.
Similarly Michale Schermer of Skeptic wrote a book I love: "The Science of Good and Evil". And the problem with that is his bias toward libertarianism and his naive belief in the simplicity of certain contraversial issues.

Overall these kinds of biases mostly affect the prescription areas of books in question.
But Diamond's book really doesn't focus much on prescription.
And the Easter Island thing doesn't affect his point so much as the specific way he describes it.

So I don't see anything about the critiques that lead me to believe the whole thing is bunk. Yeah, Diamond's an old hippie. He also has a broad knowledge in various areas of science.

 

An absolute must tread.My favorite philosopher of all.
I like where he goes into building his little cabin.The use of
buying nails and things like 1/2 penny.He might have been
a loner or recluse but there's no doubt his love nature and
it's importance on Earth {Relation to Man }.
I don't see how he could live in a hut about the size of the jail
cell guys like John Gotti were put.But then Thoreau was extremely
efficient,frugal.

 

In the documentary on one of his books, he said something that made me think he's intoxicated by the idea of egalitarianism, and his conclusions are silly. I don't remember exactly what he said, but the statement was tantamount to saying "because this tribe in the jungle invented blow guns proves that they are just as advanced as any other civilization civilization." I wouldn't say everything he writes is bunk either. I'm sure it is full of illuminating facts, but I think the inferences that he makes from these facts, and his conclusions are just the opinions of an old hippy.

 

I was a huge fan of fantasy when I was in high school, but I grew out of it. The characters just weren't believable any more. I think most of the stuff I read then could just as easily be classified as young adult. But the George RR Martin stuff is great. R. Scott Bakker is also very good for fantasy. Actually, he's better, in my opinion, than Martin. You might want to try him, too.