So.... read anything good lately?
May 25, 2012 17:20:24 #
I love to read and always looking for suggestions on something people find worthwhile or fun.
Right now I'm working my way through Ian Kershaw's, The End: The Defiance and Destruction of Hitler's Germany, 1944-1945. Kershaw is exploring the question of why, even though the war was clearly lost, did the Germans keep fighting?
Have recently read two other books on the war, Max Hastings' All Hell Let Loose: The World at War 1939-45 and The Storm of War: A New History of the Second World War by Andrew Roberts. Both excellent.
If you want to try something a bit mind bending, The Beginning of Infinity: Explanations that Transform the World by David Deutsch should fill the bill nicely. Deutsch is best known as the father of quantum computing.
As he writes in the introduction:
You may not agree with Deutsch, but he will give your thinking machine a good workout!
Next on the reading list is Christopher Moore's Sacre Bleu: A Comedy d'Art. The easily offended are probably not going to like Moore's stuff, but the guy is one of the funniest people writing today. With titles like Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal, The Stupidest Angel: A Heartwarming Tale of Christmas Terror and The Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove, you are sure to offend most anyone.
So... read anything good lately?
Right now I'm working my way through Ian Kershaw's, The End: The Defiance and Destruction of Hitler's Germany, 1944-1945. Kershaw is exploring the question of why, even though the war was clearly lost, did the Germans keep fighting?
Have recently read two other books on the war, Max Hastings' All Hell Let Loose: The World at War 1939-45 and The Storm of War: A New History of the Second World War by Andrew Roberts. Both excellent.
If you want to try something a bit mind bending, The Beginning of Infinity: Explanations that Transform the World by David Deutsch should fill the bill nicely. Deutsch is best known as the father of quantum computing.
As he writes in the introduction:
Quote:
In this book I argue that all progress, both theor... (show quote)
You may not agree with Deutsch, but he will give your thinking machine a good workout!
Next on the reading list is Christopher Moore's Sacre Bleu: A Comedy d'Art. The easily offended are probably not going to like Moore's stuff, but the guy is one of the funniest people writing today. With titles like Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal, The Stupidest Angel: A Heartwarming Tale of Christmas Terror and The Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove, you are sure to offend most anyone.
So... read anything good lately?
May 25, 2012 19:36:58 #
I'm tempted to check out The History of Salt from the library. The title intrigues me.
May 25, 2012 21:33:06 #
SteveR wrote:
I'm tempted to check out The History of Salt from the library. The title intrigues me.
If you are talking about the book by Kurlansky, I read it a few years back. It was a pretty good read and I would not dissuade you from it.
I enjoy this type book. Not an academic monograph, but it gives deeper insight into the single topic. A couple others I have enjoyed would include Parallax: The Race to Measure the Cosmos by HirshFeld and Sobel's endlessly titled Longitude: The True Story of the Lone Genius who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of his Time. Sobel also wrote an accessible book for the interested layman on the beginning of modern astronomy, A More Perfect Heaven: How Copernicus Revolutionized The Cosmos.
All are worth the time.
May 25, 2012 21:38:25 #
I just finished "Devil in the Grove" by Gilbert King. It's about 4 black men accused of raping a white girl in Groveland, Florida in the late 1940s and defended by Thurgood Marshall.
May 25, 2012 22:28:19 #
Mac wrote:
I just finished "Devil in the Grove" by Gilbert King. It's about 4 black men accused of raping a white girl in Groveland, Florida in the late 1940s and defended by Thurgood Marshall.
Sounds interesting. I've added it to the reading list. Thanks for the suggestion.
May 25, 2012 22:37:54 #
Any Nora Roberts books are good reading. I have read a number of them and even have a couple of them.
May 25, 2012 22:38:54 #
With the Old Breed at Okinawa and Pelilieu. Eugene Sledge.
Amazing battle descriptions of some of the worst fighting in the Paficic from a Marine veteran. His memoir was used for the HBO Series, The Pacific.
We Were Soldiers Once and Young. Col. Hal Moore.
Hair raising description of the Ia Drang valley battle as described by the commanding officer. First Air Cav landed a couple hundred men in the middle of what is estimated as a force of two divisions of NVA. Chaos ensued. Two hundred pages of he most harrowing battle description you can read.
Amazing battle descriptions of some of the worst fighting in the Paficic from a Marine veteran. His memoir was used for the HBO Series, The Pacific.
We Were Soldiers Once and Young. Col. Hal Moore.
Hair raising description of the Ia Drang valley battle as described by the commanding officer. First Air Cav landed a couple hundred men in the middle of what is estimated as a force of two divisions of NVA. Chaos ensued. Two hundred pages of he most harrowing battle description you can read.
May 25, 2012 23:07:02 #
ngc1514 wrote:
Sounds interesting. I've added it to the reading list. Thanks for the suggestion.
Mac wrote:
I just finished "Devil in the Grove" by Gilbert King. It's about 4 black men accused of raping a white girl in Groveland, Florida in the late 1940s and defended by Thurgood Marshall.
Sounds interesting. I've added it to the reading list. Thanks for the suggestion.
Is Groveland the town in Florida that got destroyed by angry whites?
May 25, 2012 23:18:10 #
SteveR wrote:
Is Groveland the town in Florida that got destroyed by angry whites?
ngc1514 wrote:
Sounds interesting. I've added it to the reading list. Thanks for the suggestion.
Mac wrote:
I just finished "Devil in the Grove" by Gilbert King. It's about 4 black men accused of raping a white girl in Groveland, Florida in the late 1940s and defended by Thurgood Marshall.
Sounds interesting. I've added it to the reading list. Thanks for the suggestion.
Is Groveland the town in Florida that got destroyed by angry whites?
Steve
No, that would be Rosewood. That happened in the 1920s.
May 25, 2012 23:28:02 #
FredCDobbs wrote:
With the Old Breed at Okinawa and Pelilieu. Eugene Sledge.
Amazing battle descriptions of some of the worst fighting in the Paficic from a Marine veteran. His memoir was used for the HBO Series, The Pacific.
Amazing battle descriptions of some of the worst fighting in the Paficic from a Marine veteran. His memoir was used for the HBO Series, The Pacific.
Another good read about the Marines is Col. Joseph H. Alexander's Utmost Savagery: The Three Days of Tarawa. If your interest is in the American naval war during WWII, there is nothing better than Samuel Eliot Morison'sThe Two-Ocean War: A Short History of the United States Navy in the Second World War. Morison was the author of the 15 volume official Naval History of the war and no one writes it better.
May 25, 2012 23:31:23 #
photo guy wrote:
Any Nora Roberts books are good reading. I have read a number of them and even have a couple of them.
I love trashy fiction, but have not yet started on Roberts. Michael Connelly, John Sandford, C.J. Box, Patricia Cornwell, Kathy Reichs... there are so many doing such great stuff it's impossible to keep up. But for the thrillers, Connelly and Sandford are my favorites. Not a single redeeming value in ANY of their books, but they are such great reads!
May 26, 2012 05:48:39 #
The Norweian author Jo Nesbo is a good read. % or 6 books in the series of Harry Hole, crime buster extrordinaire. He & Clint Eastwood[Dirty Harry] would clean up the world of crime.
In similar vane to Stieg Larrson.
In similar vane to Stieg Larrson.
May 26, 2012 06:19:41 #
oldmalky
Loc: West Midlands,England.
When i read i like to be taken out of everyday normality so my chosen author is was and always will be Jack Vance the master of science fiction.For a helping of Horror Shaun Hutson, always scared me, I loved David Gemmell as well. thats me then.
May 26, 2012 06:46:33 #
ngc1514 wrote:
I love trashy fiction, but have not yet started on Roberts. Michael Connelly, John Sandford, C.J. Box, Patricia Cornwell, Kathy Reichs... there are so many doing such great stuff it's impossible to keep up. But for the thrillers, Connelly and Sandford are my favorites. Not a single redeeming value in ANY of their books, but they are such great reads!
photo guy wrote:
Any Nora Roberts books are good reading. I have read a number of them and even have a couple of them.
I love trashy fiction, but have not yet started on Roberts. Michael Connelly, John Sandford, C.J. Box, Patricia Cornwell, Kathy Reichs... there are so many doing such great stuff it's impossible to keep up. But for the thrillers, Connelly and Sandford are my favorites. Not a single redeeming value in ANY of their books, but they are such great reads!
Fiction, trashy or otherwise, is my preference too.
I'm compelled to use an iPad for recreational reading because of vision problems. Anyway, while searching for new books to read, I found a goldmine at Amazon's Kindle book department.
The books I treasure are priced at $3 or below--some for 99 cents. I've read 7 or 8 of these low cost novels, most of them dealing with WWII, and have five or six lined up to read.
The author I like best, so far, is Noel Hynd. He can be depended on for a good read. However the best approach to this trove of reading treasures, is to check out Kindle eBooks and take a chance.
Good reading to all.
May 26, 2012 06:55:37 #
ngc1514 wrote:
I love to read and always looking for suggestions ... (show quote)
The Arms of Krupp
American Caesar
A World Lit only by Fire
Peter the Great
Nicholas and Alexandra
Born in Blood
News From the Empire
One Hundred Years of Solitude
Love in the Time of Cholera
Wild Swans
Mao: The Unknown Story
Physics of the Impossible
The Fabric of the Cosmos: Space, Time, and the Texture of Reality
The Elegant Universe: Superstrings, Hidden Dimensions, and the Quest for the Ultimate Theory
Devil's Gate: Brigham Young and the Great Mormon Handcart Tragedy
Shadow Country, Peter Matthiessen
Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman
Steve Jobs
Life by Keith Richards (really a good read)
Anything by Kurt Vonegut and Robert Anson Heinlein
Of course the three book series starting with "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.
So many books, so little time.
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