Could we create a poll for the beginning of this entire thread? I was wondering what type of genre most on here read or just prefer in general.
Grant by Ron Chernow
950+ pages
One of Mrs. dd's Christmas gifts to me
I'm gonna need a few Ymm, Beers to get through this one, not because of quality but because of its length/depth/detail.
Page 32 this AM and he's just graduated from West Point and received his first Army assignment.
[redacted] them and the horses they rode in on.
Could we create a poll for the beginning of this entire thread? I was wondering what type of genre most on here read or just prefer in general.
"The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge" -Stephen Hawking
I read DBR, some other Duke and Falcons sites, and some financial stuff does that count?
The only 'book' I read is The Bible.
Currently reading Vince Flynn novel called Enemy of the State by Kyle Mills. Very good.
Tom Mac
I love reading history, especially in the 1492 era. Columbus discovers America, Spain expels the Moors from Granada, the Spanish Inquisition begins. I love reading about the Renaissance and also the Protestant reformation and the Catholic counter reformation. Interesting, world shattering events that have shaped our current world.
I love crime and spy novels. John LeCarre, Michael O'Connell, Daniel Silva, and many others.
Despite being a tired, aging attorney, I love well written stories about great lawyers and cases. Louis Nizer. "A Civil Action" later made into a decent movie. I had a case in Denver decades ago against the lawyer protagonist of A Civil Action. Good guy. He was telling me, over coffee, about the big environmental case he had in Boston.
I like to read and take great enjoyment from it.
Just finished God Unbound by Elaine A Heath, current dean of Duke Divinity school.
It is only $10 on Amazon, and just over 100 pages.
I found it a fascinating read.
I finished Outer Dark and The Orchard Keeper to complete my Cormac McCarthy collection. Outer Dark was a doozy. Its a deranged Southern Gothic nativity retelling of sorts. If you are a McCarthy fan like I am (obviously) its worth checking out. But like his other stories, its got some brutal stuff, so be forewarned. Starting Extreme Ownership by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin. They're retired SEALs and the book is a leadership guide more so than a war memoir. I like it so far. Oh and Jocko's podcast is awesome.
Showtime is about to have a five part series, Patrick Melrose, with Benedict Cumberbatch as the lead.
It's based on the five Patrick Melrose novels (semi autobiographical) by Edward St. Aubyn.
All five are now available as one download on Kindle (hardcover probably, too), 880 pages.
Great Brit writing, but not for the faint of heart.
I'm on the last of the five books right now...
"The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge" -Stephen Hawking
Lincoln In The Bardo. Man Booker winner.
Excellent.
Nothing incites bodily violence quicker than a Duke fan turning in your direction and saying 'scoreboard.'
(I'm hoping someone says The Hush soon. But not for any relative reason...)
-jk
Safe Area Goražde 1992-1995, by Joe Sacco (2000). This is a graphic novel, the first one I have ever read. It is a novel in the sense that the author has had to take liberties with personal events which are consistent with the overview of the Serbian partitioning of Bosnia after the dissolution of Tito's Yugoslavia.
Let me say first, that Sacco is a a terrific cartoonist. Second, as a journalist he has captured the ugliness of those years. Goražde (pron. Garage-dah) is a small city in southeastern Bosnia which was supposed to be a safe area per a UN declaration. It was anything but. Other safe areas fell to the Serbs without much of a whimper from the UN. Goražde seemed likely to fall as well. The town was virtually defenseless and had been pounded into a pre-industrial state.
This book personalizes what happened. It ain't pretty. History wants to call it a civil war. It was more of an ethnic cleansing of an unarmed civilian people by a full blown army with heavy weaponry. The Bosnian army was small, ill-equipped and largely unable to fight. So the Serbian army, with the murderous assistance of ethnic Serbs (who were Bosnian) decided to take all Serbian areas of Bosnia under the guise of protecting the Serb portion of the population, and cleanse it of these Europeanized Muslims who had been living with them. They had lived side by side in harmony for years, both under Tito and for a while thereafter. The Serbian atrocities were appalling. Sacco doesn't spare the Bosnians from their own misdeeds either, so there is a balance.
This is also a condemnation of the UN's failure to do its job and the three years of NATO dithering. Once it acted, the peace talks in Dayton commenced. Even then, the partitioning was never fully redressed.
Anyway, Sacco does a good job of recording the facts, dreadful as they are. The graphic aspect makes it easy to follow. If you feel that you have never quite understood the Bosnian War, this is an easy way of getting a handle on it.
I'm not sure if I will try another graphic novel, despite this one's excellence. I'll take recommendations.
Started The Girl With All the Gifts. Anyone else read this or watch the movie?
Just finished The Looming Tower by Lawrence Wright. Can’t recommend it enough. Fantastic and informative read. I plan on watching the Hulu series now. Next book is Neuromancer. Kind of embarrassed it’s taken me this long to get around to it...
I just finished reading "The King of Lies" and "Down River" by John Hart ... after recommendation by someone on these boards. I picked up "The Last Child" today but haven't started it yet. I love John Hart's writing. Great books!
I am 170 pages into A Peace To End All Peace: The Fall of the Ottoman Empire and the Creation of the Modern Middle East by David Fromkin. It is very interesting to read about the political maneuvering of the Western Powers in how to break up the Ottoman Empire between themselves. Most interesting is the plotting of the different British offices; in London, Egypt and India. The rivalry between British in Egypt and in India over which office would oversee the new Middle East was as intense as the rivalry between England, France and Russia.
All of this political maneuvering is occurring while the Turkish Army inflicts 250,000 casualties on the Allies at Gallipoli.
Bob Green
Reading the brilliant Gabriel Allon series written by Daniel Silva. Third time through the series, which is now 17 or 18 books. Also just finished a couple by Nelson DeMille.
Oh, and writing a novel now, set in Nicaragua, which suddenly is providing me some great material ripped from the headlines.