What are you reading now?

Crazy Canuck

ASFN Icon
BANNED BY MODERATORS
Joined
May 14, 2002
Posts
10,077
Reaction score
0
Re-reading History of the Second World War by Liddell Hart, and Inside the Third Reich by Albert Speer.
 

Zeno

Ancient
Joined
Sep 24, 2002
Posts
15,577
Reaction score
5,388
Location
Fort Myers
Currently reading The Forever War by Joe Haldeman

Puiblished in the early 70's. It is considered one of the best Sci Fi war books ever written.

I was pursuaded to read it from these quotes about the book...

"To say that The Forever War is the best science fiction war novel ever written is to damn it with faint praise. It is, for all its techno-extrapolative brilliance, as fine and woundingly genuine a war story as any I've read."
--William Gibson, author of Neuromancer, Spook Country

"FOREVER WAR is brilliant--one of the most influential war novels of our time. That it happens to be set in the future only broadens and enhances its message."
--Greg Bear, author of Moving Mars, Eon, The Forge of God

"The Forever War does what the very best science fiction does. It deals with extremes both societal and teleological; it places a frame around humankind's place in the universe to show us what is outside the frame; and it functions simultaneously at the literal and metaphorical level. Inarguably one of the genre's great novels, it is also among the finest novels ever written about war."
--James Sallis, author of The Long Legged Fly, Drive, Cripple Creek

Next up for me is Istanbul: Memories of a City by Orhan Pamuk
Pamuk won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2006

It is a story of his growing up in the city and the way the city changed.

My wife and I are visiting Istanbul next year so I figured it would be a good read ahead of time.
 

DutchmanAZ

Hall of Famer
Joined
Sep 22, 2003
Posts
1,834
Reaction score
443
Location
AZ
I've been enjoying Michael Connelly's work with the Harry Bosch series. Mindless reading, but well suited for entertainment.
 

Pariah

H.S.
Supporting Member
Joined
Feb 3, 2003
Posts
35,345
Reaction score
18
Location
The Aventine
Currently reading The Forever War by Joe Haldeman
I'm going to check this out.

On an unrelated note, I'm reading books A LOT slower on my Kindle. I can't really figure out why--it's not that I'm reading the pages slower, I'm just putting it down quicker than I do a paper book. Anyone else experience this?
 

Zeno

Ancient
Joined
Sep 24, 2002
Posts
15,577
Reaction score
5,388
Location
Fort Myers
I don't have a Kindle yet...considering it or the Barnes & Noble version though. Maybe by Christmas.
 

Crazy Canuck

ASFN Icon
BANNED BY MODERATORS
Joined
May 14, 2002
Posts
10,077
Reaction score
0
I'm going to check this out.

On an unrelated note, I'm reading books A LOT slower on my Kindle. I can't really figure out why--it's not that I'm reading the pages slower, I'm just putting it down quicker than I do a paper book. Anyone else experience this?

What's your overall impression of reading on a Kindle?
 

Pariah

H.S.
Supporting Member
Joined
Feb 3, 2003
Posts
35,345
Reaction score
18
Location
The Aventine
What's your overall impression of reading on a Kindle?
I like it. It's a better tactile experience than I would have thought.

I'd recommend it, but the price tag is big enough that I'd also suggest finding someone you know with one go you can give it a spin before you buy.
 

Crazy Canuck

ASFN Icon
BANNED BY MODERATORS
Joined
May 14, 2002
Posts
10,077
Reaction score
0
I like it. It's a better tactile experience than I would have thought.

I'd recommend it, but the price tag is big enough that I'd also suggest finding someone you know with one go you can give it a spin before you buy.

Thanks...
 

Pariah

H.S.
Supporting Member
Joined
Feb 3, 2003
Posts
35,345
Reaction score
18
Location
The Aventine
"The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo"

You must be registered for see images attach


Publisher's Weekly said:
Cases rarely come much colder than the decades-old disappearance of teen heiress Harriet Vanger from her family's remote island retreat north of Stockholm, nor do fiction debuts hotter than this European bestseller by muckraking Swedish journalist Larsson. At once a strikingly original thriller and a vivisection of Sweden's dirty not-so-little secrets (as suggested by its original title, Men Who Hate Women), this first of a trilogy introduces a provocatively odd couple: disgraced financial journalist Mikael Blomkvist, freshly sentenced to jail for libeling a shady businessman, and the multipierced and tattooed Lisbeth Salander, a feral but vulnerable superhacker. Hired by octogenarian industrialist Henrik Vanger, who wants to find out what happened to his beloved great-niece before he dies, the duo gradually uncover a festering morass of familial corruption—at the same time, Larsson skillfully bares some of the similar horrors that have left Salander such a marked woman. Larsson died in 2004, shortly after handing in the manuscripts for what will be his legacy.

Just picked it up, but it's one of those books that flows so well that even though nothing's really happened yet I'm enjoying it.
 

Zeno

Ancient
Joined
Sep 24, 2002
Posts
15,577
Reaction score
5,388
Location
Fort Myers
Currently reading Harry Turtledove's latest alternate history book...
You must be registered for see images


Here, Turtledove takes us across a panorama of conflict fueled by ideology and demagoguery. Nations are pitted against nations, alliances are forged between old enemies, ordinary men and women are hurled into extraordinary life-and-death situations. In Japanese-controlled Singapore, an American marine falls in love with a Russian dance hall hostess, while around him are heard the first explosions of Chinese guerilla resistance. On the frontlines of war-ravaged rural France, a weary soldier perfects the art of using an enormous anti-tank gun as a sniper’s tool—while from Germany a killer is sent to hunt him down. And in the icy North Atlantic, a U-boat bearing an experimental device wreaks havoc on British shipping, setting the stage for a Nazi ground invasion of Denmark.

From an American woman trapped in Germany who receives safe passage from Hitler himself to a Jewish family steeped in German culture and facing the hatred rising around them, from Japanese soldiers on the remote edge of Siberia to American volunteers in Spain, West and East is the story of a world held hostage by tyrants—Stalin, Hitler, Sanjuro—each holding on to power through lies and terror even in the face of treacherous plots from within.

As armies clash, and as the brave, foolish, and true believers choose sides, new weapons are added to already deadly arsenals and new strategies are plotted to break a growing stalemate. But one question looms over the conflict from West to East: What will it take to bring America into this war?
 

Cheesebeef

ASFN IDOL
Supporting Member
Joined
Jan 2, 2003
Posts
90,260
Reaction score
65,453
Just finished "Apathy" and starting to read Ken Nunn's "Tapping The Source".
 

Louis

DJ Roomba
Joined
Nov 28, 2005
Posts
5,316
Reaction score
2
Location
Winning Friends and Influencing the People in My H
Just started "The Kids From Nowhere" by George Guthridge.

Pretty good so far..here is the Amazon description of the book...

From the world-award-winning writer comes the gripping, true story of a group of Alaskan Eskimo students who, despite nearly impossible odds, achieve one of the most stunning educational feats in the history of American education.


In 1982, George Guthridge brought his wife and two young daughters to Gambell, Alaska, a small village on the edge of the remote blizzard-swept St. Lawrence Island in the Bering Sea, one of the harshest and most remote places in Alaska. Guthridge was there to teach at a Siberian-Yupik school—a school so troubled it was under threat of closure.

For its own reasons, the school district enters the students into one of the most difficult academic competitions in the nation. The school has no computers and very few books. The students lack world knowledge and speak English as a second language. Still, George resolves to coach them to a state championship. But the students have an even greater goal of their own.

Hilarious, disturbing, densely atmospheric—and packed with surprises at every turn—The Kids from Nowhere is a powerful, poignant story that will make you want to cry and cheer at the same time.
Similar to an Alaskan Stand and Deliver, this is an inspiring story of triumph over adversity that provides a fascinating view of a remote Alaska Native village.
 

DemsMyBoys

ASFN Icon
Joined
Nov 18, 2008
Posts
12,372
Reaction score
4,637
Location
Cave Creek
Sounds great Louis! I'm putting it on my list. It also sounds a bit like "The Water Is Wide" by Pat Conroy, which is one of my favorite books.
 

Louis

DJ Roomba
Joined
Nov 28, 2005
Posts
5,316
Reaction score
2
Location
Winning Friends and Influencing the People in My H
Thanks for the mentioning of that book. I'm adding that to my list!

I enjoy these kind of books immensely. From "Leaving Microsoft" to "Three Cups of Tea" to "The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind" these kind of books are moving and inspirational.

I've read about a 1/3rd of Nowhere and it's been a book that I've had to force myself to put down.
 

Bada0Bing

Don't Stop Believin'
Joined
Feb 19, 2004
Posts
7,654
Reaction score
905
Location
Goodyear
You must be registered for see images attach

Product Description
In this irreverent and illuminating audiobook, acclaimed writer and scientist Leonard Mlodinow shows us how randomness, chance, and probability reveal a tremendous amount about our daily lives, and how we misunderstand the significance of everything from a casual conversation to a major financial setback. As a result, successes and failures in life are often attributed to clear and obvious causes, when in actuality they are more profoundly influenced by chance.

The rise and fall of your favorite movie star or the most reviled CEO - in fact, all our destinies - reflects chance as much as planning and innate abilities. Even Roger Maris, who beat Babe Ruth's single season home-run record, was in all likelihood not great but just lucky.

How could it have happened that a wine was given five out of five stars by one journal and called the worst wine of the decade by another? Wine ratings, school grades, political polls, and many other things in daily life are less reliable than we believe. By showing us the true nature of chance and revealing the psychological illusions that cause us to misjudge the world around us, Mlodinow gives fresh insight into what is really meaningful and how we can make decisions based on a deeper truth. From the classroom to the courtroom, from financial markets to supermarkets, from the doctor's office to the Oval Office, Mlodinow's insights will intrigue, awe, and inspire.

Offering listeners not only a tour of randomness, chance and probability but also a new way of looking at the world, this original, unexpected journey reminds us that much in our lives is about as predictable as the steps of a stumbling man afresh from a night at a bar.

Decent book. Similar to a Malcolm Gladwell book, but just not as interestingly written. I'm always amazed at how easily logic is overlooked in daily life. People jump to conclusions so easily. It pops out to me all the time as my brain leans 98% logic & 2% creative.
 

RugbyMuffin

ASFN IDOL
Joined
Apr 30, 2003
Posts
30,485
Reaction score
4,877
Twenty Years After - by Alexandre Dumas, père

The sequel to the Three Musketeers, and as usual, it is great. Not worth reading if you don't read the Three Musketeers first, but it would be foolish not to read Twenty Years After once you finish the Musketeers.

Three Musketeers - by Alexandre Dumas, père

At this point, I have made the decision to just read all his stuff. Again this is a really good book.
 

DemsMyBoys

ASFN Icon
Joined
Nov 18, 2008
Posts
12,372
Reaction score
4,637
Location
Cave Creek
Empire of the Summer Moon - Quanah Parker and the rise and fall of the Comanches, the most powerful Indian tribe in American history - By S.C. Gwynne

The author also focuses on Cynthia Ann Parker who, in 1836, was kidnapped by the Comanches (she was nine) and who was Quanah's mother. Honest depiction of how it was then. To the point of not being for the faint of heart.
 
Top