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  1. #61
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    Walnut Creek, California
    Historical fiction/thrillers: Any of the Bernie Gunther novels by Philip Kerr. There are eleven now (I think). The most recent is The Other Side of Silence, issued this year. It might be best, though, to start with the earliest and work your way forward as they are written (almost) serially covering pre-War Germany up through 1956. Best spy novelist aside from Le Carre and Len Deighton. Amazing how the author fits his fiction to the historical facts.

    BTW, I also just finished Le Carre's The Night Manager published 1993 which is currently being serialized on AMC.

  2. #62
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    Skinker-DeBaliviere, Saint Louis
    I can't speak for anyone else, but I'm sick of reading about the Civil War precisely because I'm southern. I know the basics, and a bit past. That's enough.

    Without surfing too far over into PPB, I must say I'm too busy engaging with the 2016 manifestations of the same problems. 1861-65 can go sit in a corner coz we got our hands full now.

    A movie is not about what it's about; it's about how it's about it.
    ---Roger Ebert


    Some questions cannot be answered
    Who’s gonna bury who
    We need a love like Johnny, Johnny and June
    ---Over the Rhine

  3. #63
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    Columbus, Ohio
    Just picked up "Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man" for the first time. Well, the second time. I picked it up in high school, read a page, and promptly returned it to a shelf.

  4. #64
    Join Date
    Mar 2008
    Location
    Mary's Place
    Quote Originally Posted by cspan37421 View Post
    You've got your priorities straight!
    One way to kill two birds with one stone: read to your kids. There's a lot of good stuff out there, and it's fun for both the reader and listener. Each age has their stages of favorite authors. You might be at a good stage for James Marshall books (George and Martha, Fox, etc). Before long you'll be reading them first Harry Potter, and they'll be reading on their own soon too. Enjoy it while it lasts!
    My youngest is a 9th grader now and I miss reading to the kids more than I can tell. Mrs. Turk still has quite an impressive collection of the most popular stories still memorized, but I have lost big chunks of my favorites by now. The young Turks are not amused if somehow this comes up in conversation and I try to dust something off, but we have entertained adult friends once or twice with this stunt as our Stupid Human Party Trick.

    For variety, I would try on voices as I read, such as Montgomery Burns as the Star-Bellied Sneetches, Homer Simpson as the Plain-Bellied Sneetches, and Bill Clinton as Sylvester McMonkey McBean. Also, I used Thomas the Tank Engine to work on my posh British accent. Sometimes this was tolerated with a weary endurance; but most times, just annoyance: "Daddy, just read it in your *normal* voice!!"

    The other thing I would do with the books I knew by heart is to keep reading the story without turning the pages and see how quickly they noticed. Once they picked up on that, I would let them decide who got to turn the pages. "Daddy, don't forget to turn the pages this time!!"

    Lastly, there is a special category of books that the kids loved but we despised as mind-numbingly stupid, or too long to read in a single sitting. These were called "looking-at" books, and we would limit the number of those that could go into a stack to be read.

    (P.S. At the risk of swerving into parenting PPB, we also never had a DVD player in the car for long trips, so they had to keep themselves occupied, usually with books or little games).
    "Quality is not an option!"

  5. #65
    Recent Fun Reads:

    "It's So Easy (and other Lies)" - Duff McKagan - I have read 3 biographies from the original G'n'R lineup, and this one is by far the best. What makes it so is not just the founding, rise, and fall of GnR, but what McKagan has done with his life since. A very driven individual with an incredible life story.

    "The Last Great Game: Duke, Kentucky, and the 2.1 seconds that changed college basketball" by Gene Wojciechowski is also excellent. Does a great job of combining two equally compelling narratives.

    "Armada" by Ernest Cline - had high hopes for this one after how much I loved "Ready Player One," but it largely falls flat. Kind of an Ender's Game meets The Last Starfighter tale.

    Immensely enjoyed "A Walk in the Woods" by Bryson as well.


    As to what is currently on my night stand:

    "A Brief History of Time" - Steven Hawking - Not my usual fare, but so far it is pretty good. Hawking is excellent at breaking down complex scientific ideas and explaining them in a straightforward way. Not a quick read tho, unless you were a chemistry or physics major.

    Rereading the Harry Potter series with my eldest on tape, narrated by Jim Dale. Excellent presentation if you like books on tape.


    Trying to read "Crucial Conversations" as I have time, but it, like Hawking, has to be taken in small doses.
    "There can BE only one."

  6. #66
    Join Date
    Jun 2010
    Location
    Roxboro, NC
    I have been on a classics tour. I recently read 'A Tale of Two Cities', 'The Grapes of Wrath' and ''East of Eden'.

    I am currently re-reading the Harry Potter series, in book 5 now.

    I was intending to read 'The Count of Monte Christo' next but I received 'The Legends Club' and J-Will's autobiography for my birthday so they will be next.

  7. #67
    Join Date
    Apr 2010
    Location
    Seattle
    Finally got my hands on a copy of GoT. About 200-250 pages in and I'm thoroughly enjoying it so far!

  8. #68
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    Southern Pines, NC
    Quote Originally Posted by Jim3k View Post
    Historical fiction/thrillers: Any of the Bernie Gunther novels by Philip Kerr. There are eleven now (I think). The most recent is The Other Side of Silence, issued this year. It might be best, though, to start with the earliest and work your way forward as they are written (almost) serially covering pre-War Germany up through 1956. Best spy novelist aside from Le Carre and Len Deighton. Amazing how the author fits his fiction to the historical facts.

    BTW, I also just finished Le Carre's The Night Manager published 1993 which is currently being serialized on AMC.
    I just dropped into your John Le Carre and Len Deighton post from earlier this month. Sheer coincidence -- I just finished my second read of Charity, last in Deighton's Faith, Hope And Charity trilogy, and the final in his long list of trilogies. Also Mrs. Jarhead and I watched and enjoyed AMC's production of The Night Manager. A big well done to the producers. I have a pretty long list of old novels that I intend to reread as time goes on, but still enjoy modern novels of the type authored by David Baldacci or weirdly, Dean Koontz. During these times, when sports get less attention from me, and TV airs more slime on my screen, I look for more books to read. Of course, I still have the DBR to entertain me.

  9. #69
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    Skinker-DeBaliviere, Saint Louis

    A movie is not about what it's about; it's about how it's about it.
    ---Roger Ebert


    Some questions cannot be answered
    Who’s gonna bury who
    We need a love like Johnny, Johnny and June
    ---Over the Rhine

  10. #70
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    Southern Pines, NC
    Another author I am now reading -- I just stated this evening -- is John Fienstein's The Legends Club. A friend gave it to me, but I was hesitant to get involved. I have not read any of his books, but I started reading it earlier this evening, and decided to continue. So far it is a pretty easy read, and I am encouraged by his writing style thus far. So far, I have nothing to criticize.

  11. #71
    Join Date
    Nov 2007
    Location
    Vermont
    Two fine reads recently: Richard Russo's Everybody's Fool (I love all his stuff, Straight Man is a classic on the foibles of academia) and Stephanie Danler's
    Sweetbitter, kind of a Kitchen Confidential for an ultra fancy restaurant's front of the house.

  12. #72
    Join Date
    Jan 2016
    Location
    Ironically, the City of Angels
    Between home maintenance and work (the hazards of employment that runs on seasons), I've been pretty swamped, so I've been reading a lot of comics. However, I am eyeing Once in a Great City, which is a contemporary cultural history of Detroit. My mother gave it to me for Christmas, and I haven't gotten to it yet, but I'm eager to, as I loved my two years in Detroit.

  13. #73
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    Skinker-DeBaliviere, Saint Louis
    Quote Originally Posted by Jarhead View Post
    Another author I am now reading -- I just stated this evening -- is John Fienstein's The Legends Club. A friend gave it to me, but I was hesitant to get involved. I have not read any of his books, but I started reading it earlier this evening, and decided to continue. So far it is a pretty easy read, and I am encouraged by his writing style thus far. So far, I have nothing to criticize.
    Patience, friend.

    A movie is not about what it's about; it's about how it's about it.
    ---Roger Ebert


    Some questions cannot be answered
    Who’s gonna bury who
    We need a love like Johnny, Johnny and June
    ---Over the Rhine

  14. #74
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    Chesapeake, VA.
    "Cutting for Stone." Outstanding.
    "We are not provided with wisdom, we must discover it for ourselves, after a journey through the wilderness which no one else can take for us, an effort which no one can spare us, for our wisdom is the point of view from which we come at last to regard the world." --M. Proust

  15. #75
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    Southern Pines, NC
    Quote Originally Posted by throatybeard View Post
    Patience, friend.
    The point has been reached where I've been thinking that my bookmark has betrayed me. For about a page I could have sworn that I had already read it. It is a puzzlement, but after several pages it happened again. I'll have to study this phenomenon.

  16. #76
    You start a book, get rolling, and then.......well, life gets in the way. When you get back to it (if ever), most often large servings of rereading end up on the plate. Wash, rinse, repeat - you know what i mean. You don't? Am i the only one (well, crap)? Absent that, some other Jezebel drags you into its lair and BANG, before you know it you're in the clutches of something new. That's not to say books don't get finished, but that hasn't been the norm for a long time. All this drivel aside, here's the latest onslaught:

    The Spirit of Enterprise - George Gilder
    Gracie - George Burns
    The Scandal of Money - George Gilder

    {note any pattern here?}

    and

    Team of Teams - General Stanley McChrystal
    The University of North Carolina
    Where CHEATING is a Way of Life

  17. #77
    I've just been thinking I want to get into a good book this summer, as I haven't had much time to read lately between work and a new baby (and constantly reading DBR of course), so thanks for the thread! I really enjoyed The Secret Game by Scott Ellsworth a few months ago. I live near the ocean, and a friend recently recommended Blue Mind, a book that shows how humans being near, in, on, or under water makes us happier and healthier. I'm looking forward to that one. I'd also like to read something related to NC history. Any recommendations?

  18. #78
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    Durham, NC
    Quote Originally Posted by dukebluesincebirth View Post
    I've just been thinking I want to get into a good book this summer, as I haven't had much time to read lately between work and a new baby (and constantly reading DBR of course), so thanks for the thread! I really enjoyed The Secret Game by Scott Ellsworth a few months ago. I live near the ocean, and a friend recently recommended Blue Mind, a book that shows how humans being near, in, on, or under water makes us happier and healthier. I'm looking forward to that one. I'd also like to read something related to NC history. Any recommendations?
    Jimmy Carter's Hornet's Nest is historical fiction about the Revolutionary War. A lot takes place in NC. I learned more about NC's role in the war reading this book than I did in school.

  19. #79
    Join Date
    Apr 2010
    Location
    Seattle
    I've made it to the 4th Game of Thrones book. Slow start so far. I've heard the 4th and 5th books tend to drag a bit, though. 1 and 3 were my favorites so far.

  20. #80
    Join Date
    Nov 2013
    Location
    The Northwest
    Quote Originally Posted by luburch View Post
    I've made it to the 4th Game of Thrones book. Slow start so far. I've heard the 4th and 5th books tend to drag a bit, though. 1 and 3 were my favorites so far.
    I'm not sure if I would characterize it as dragging, but 4th and 5th were not nearly as good as the first three. The third book is the best, but I liked the 2nd more than the 1st (which gives you an idea of how disappointing it was to see the 4th drop after the steady increase for me).

    I just finished Dog Stars. It was okay. Not great.

    About to read Hamilton. Looks huge, but my dad read it and liked it.

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