What are you reading?

[fuse]

Just finished Laurell K Hamilton’s Serpentine, the latest Anita Blake book.

Excellent if you are a fan of her work.

[budwom]

wanna good long page turning summer read while some summer is still left? A Million Drops by Victor del Arbol, plus The Kindle is just about giving it away at $1.99.

[Devilwin]

The Russia Hoax, by Greg Jarrett. When Man Becomes Prey, by Cat Urbigkit.

[fuse]

Also read the Revenant.

Saw the movie first, the book was well written and an enjoyable read.

[DU82]

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.

Just finished this. Two months to get through it (a chapter or two at a time.) Very detailed and certainly well researched, which made it a bit dry at times.

[devildeac]

Just finished this. Two months to get through it (a chapter or two at a time.) Very detailed and certainly well researched, which made it a bit dry at times.

I think it took me three months and I totally agree. Overall, this was a very satisfying and educational read.

[rasputin]

I'm reading In the Shadow of Statues: A White Southerner Confronts History, by Mitch Landrieu (Mayor of New Orleans), about his/NOLA's decision to remove statues of Confederate icons. It's a very good read so far.

[UVa1981]

I feel compelled to post this inaugural post inasmuch as you folks ahve added so much good stuff to my reading list.

"House of Rain" by Craig Childs
Reading much like a detective novel, "Rain" traces the movement of the Anasazi and their pueblos, kivas, and cliff dwellings from Chaco Canyon in the sixth century, through Chimney Rock four hundred years later, to Mesa Verde in the 12th century, and on to Comb Ridge, Kayenta, and terminating at Paquime in Mexico in the 1500s. Some of "Rain" will be accepted by an archaeologist as scientific fact, and some will not I am sure, but what sets the book apart is that the writer writes from the ground level, as he scrambles into canyons, crosses desert, climbs cliffs, investigates great houses, and talks with archaeologists. "Rain" is also very much a story of how difficult agriculture is in the American West.

"Beyond the 100th Meridian, John Wesley Powell and the Second Opening of the West" by Wallace Stegner
"Meridian" traces Powell's life with special emphasis on his trip down the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon, something that had not been done before, at least by white explorers. A distinguished ethnologist, Powell catalogued Indian languages, customs, and history as had never previously been so meticulously done. (As an aside, Powell named the canyon just above the Grand Canyon "Glen Canyon"; ironically, when Floyd Elgin Dominy, Commissioner of the Bureau of Reclamation, dammed Glen Canyon, he named the resulting body of water "Lake Powell." Years later, John McPhee covered some of the same territory with his fascinating "Encounters with the Archdruid: Narratives About a Conservationist and Three of his Natural Enemies," in which Dominy, McPhee, and David Brower--of Sierra Club fame--rafted the Grand Canyon together.)

For devildeac and fisheyes, here are a couple of books you might enjoy, given your thoughts upthread:

-"Heirs of General Practice" by John McPhee
I would characterize "Heirs" as a series of newsreels (sort of, but in words, not cinema) following the work of young doctors in the (relatively) new specialty of family practice, trying to unify a profession that has been increasingly specialized. McPhee is in a class by himself when it comes to non-fiction.

-"Out-Island Doctor" by Evans Cottman
Cottman tells the story of how he went from being a school teacher in the Midwest to a doctor in the Bahamas. Apparently, at one time if not today, you could practice medicine in the Caribbean without a medical degree, let alone a license. In any event, Cottman ultimately acquired all the credentials and certainly spent a good part of his life affording medical care to those very much in need of it.

-If you haven't read it (I suspect you have), you might like "The Checklist Manifesto" by Atul Gawande, which makes the point that surgeons (and other professionals) can learn from the checklist which pilots use before they take off.

For devilwin:

-"The Tiger, a True Story of Vengeance and Survival" by John Vaillant
In 1997, an Amur (or Siberian) tiger (the largest of the tiger clan) tracks and kills a poacher, eats every last scrap of him, destroys his wellhead, and circles his cabin defecating and urinating along the way. The point is that the tiger is not just looking for a meal and is not even hunting people; he's looking for a very specific person. Where did all the fury come from? That's what the book is about, so no spoiler.

Parenthetically and surprisingly, the Soviets started animal conservation long before we did, at least in so far as big cats are concerned. The men who go to track the tiger down spend most of their work life trying to protect tigers from people. This i because the Chinese next door to Siberia will pay up to $50,000 (a small fortune in Siberia) for a tiger and its constituent parts, making poaching tigers mighty tempting. In any event, the Russians' tiger police segue from protecting tigers to protecting people when one of the Amurs crosses the line and kills someone.

Generally:

-"Shadow Divers" by Robert Kurson
Non-fiction: two SCUBA divers find a WWII era submarine in 200+ feet of water (at the very edge of the depth to which divers can venture) off the shore of New Jersey and re-write history. I might have given this a whirl when I was a young man, young and dumb, but the thought of getting my SCUBA gear entangled with floating wires and the like in midnight blackness waaaay too far from help isn't one that I want to entertain these days.

-"Into Thin Air" by John Krakauer
Non-fiction: Krakauer climbs to the summit of Mount Everest and runs headlong into the deadliest storm to ever catch hikers retreating from the mountain.

-"Ship of Gold in the Deep Blue Sea: The History and Discovery of the World's Richest Shipwreck" by Gary Kinder
The SS Central America, a side-wheeler bearing gold from California, sinks off the coast of Carolina (there is a reason Cape Fear is called Cape Fear) in the 1850s. A 100+ years later a young engineer devises a scheme to find and recover the gold, which not even the US Navy has been able to pull off. Spoiler alert: my law firm absorbed the firm of the lawyer that represented the salvagers at about the same time the salvagers sailed into Norfolk with the Central America's treasure.

-Anything by John McPhee

Thanks for this thread. Really good stuff.

[devildeac]

I feel compelled to post this inaugural post inasmuch as you folks ahve added so much good stuff to my reading list.

"House of Rain" by Craig Childs
Reading much like a detective novel, "Rain" traces the movement of the Anasazi and their pueblos, kivas, and cliff dwellings from Chaco Canyon in the sixth century, through Chimney Rock four hundred years later, to Mesa Verde in the 12th century, and on to Comb Ridge, Kayenta, and terminating at Paquime in Mexico in the 1500s. Some of "Rain" will be accepted by an archaeologist as scientific fact, and some will not I am sure, but what sets the book apart is that the writer writes from the ground level, as he scrambles into canyons, crosses desert, climbs cliffs, investigates great houses, and talks with archaeologists. "Rain" is also very much a story of how difficult agriculture is in the American West.

"Beyond the 100th Meridian, John Wesley Powell and the Second Opening of the West" by Wallace Stegner
"Meridian" traces Powell's life with special emphasis on his trip down the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon, something that had not been done before, at least by white explorers. A distinguished ethnologist, Powell catalogued Indian languages, customs, and history as had never previously been so meticulously done. (As an aside, Powell named the canyon just above the Grand Canyon "Glen Canyon"; ironically, when Floyd Elgin Dominy, Commissioner of the Bureau of Reclamation, dammed Glen Canyon, he named the resulting body of water "Lake Powell." Years later, John McPhee covered some of the same territory with his fascinating "Encounters with the Archdruid: Narratives About a Conservationist and Three of his Natural Enemies," in which Dominy, McPhee, and David Brower--of Sierra Club fame--rafted the Grand Canyon together.)

For devildeac and fisheyes, here are a couple of books you might enjoy, given your thoughts upthread:

-"Heirs of General Practice" by John McPhee
I would characterize "Heirs" as a series of newsreels (sort of, but in words, not cinema) following the work of young doctors in the (relatively) new specialty of family practice, trying to unify a profession that has been increasingly specialized. McPhee is in a class by himself when it comes to non-fiction.

-"Out-Island Doctor" by Evans Cottman
Cottman tells the story of how he went from being a school teacher in the Midwest to a doctor in the Bahamas. Apparently, at one time if not today, you could practice medicine in the Caribbean without a medical degree, let alone a license. In any event, Cottman ultimately acquired all the credentials and certainly spent a good part of his life affording medical care to those very much in need of it.

-If you haven't read it (I suspect you have), you might like "The Checklist Manifesto" by Atul Gawande, which makes the point that surgeons (and other professionals) can learn from the checklist which pilots use before they take off.

For devilwin:

-"The Tiger, a True Story of Vengeance and Survival" by John Vaillant
In 1997, an Amur (or Siberian) tiger (the largest of the tiger clan) tracks and kills a poacher, eats every last scrap of him, destroys his wellhead, and circles his cabin defecating and urinating along the way. The point is that the tiger is not just looking for a meal and is not even hunting people; he's looking for a very specific person. Where did all the fury come from? That's what the book is about, so no spoiler.

Parenthetically and surprisingly, the Soviets started animal conservation long before we did, at least in so far as big cats are concerned. The men who go to track the tiger down spend most of their work life trying to protect tigers from people. This i because the Chinese next door to Siberia will pay up to $50,000 (a small fortune in Siberia) for a tiger and its constituent parts, making poaching tigers mighty tempting. In any event, the Russians' tiger police segue from protecting tigers to protecting people when one of the Amurs crosses the line and kills someone.

Generally:

-"Shadow Divers" by Robert Kurson
Non-fiction: two SCUBA divers find a WWII era submarine in 200+ feet of water (at the very edge of the depth to which divers can venture) off the shore of New Jersey and re-write history. I might have given this a whirl when I was a young man, young and dumb, but the thought of getting my SCUBA gear entangled with floating wires and the like in midnight blackness waaaay too far from help isn't one that I want to entertain these days.

-"Into Thin Air" by John Krakauer
Non-fiction: Krakauer climbs to the summit of Mount Everest and runs headlong into the deadliest storm to ever catch hikers retreating from the mountain.

-"Ship of Gold in the Deep Blue Sea: The History and Discovery of the World's Richest Shipwreck" by Gary Kinder
The SS Central America, a side-wheeler bearing gold from California, sinks off the coast of Carolina (there is a reason Cape Fear is called Cape Fear) in the 1850s. A 100+ years later a young engineer devises a scheme to find and recover the gold, which not even the US Navy has been able to pull off. Spoiler alert: my law firm absorbed the firm of the lawyer that represented the salvagers at about the same time the salvagers sailed into Norfolk with the Central America's treasure.

-Anything by John McPhee

Thanks for this thread. Really good stuff.

Great first post. Don't be a stranger. Welcome to DBR!

[Devilwin]

To UVa1981

Thanks for the info on the tiger book. I have read of that account, really spooky circumstances.
On a side note, the Amur (or Siberian) tiger is no longer considered the world's largest cat by most scientists. That honor is given today to the Bengal tiger, in particular the ones native to the region along the border with Nepal. Males there can sometimes top 600 pounds.

Siberian tigers in the past grew even larger, Yankovsky mentioned a male of 800 pounds, another of 779 pounds, and a tigress of 500 pounds. But recent surveys by Russian scientists showed that only three of the 13 males tagged weighed over 500 pounds, while an Indian survey from the Terrai region had five males between 550 and 600 pounds, including one super cat of 633 pounds.
Scientists believe the potential for Amurs to grow larger is still there, but hunters in the past took the larger individuals, removing them from the gene pool, and today they have a smaller prey base, making them burn up more energy finding prey. These two factors are considered the reason the Siberian tigers are no longer larger than Bengals.
The largest cat ever killed in the wild was an 857 pound Bengal tiger, killed in 1967. This huge cat is on display at the Smithsonian's Hall of Mammals.

[UVa1981]

To UVa1981

Thanks for the info on the tiger book. I have read of that account, really spooky circumstances.
On a side note, the Amur (or Siberian) tiger is no longer considered the world's largest cat by most scientists. That honor is given today to the Bengal tiger, in particular the ones native to the region along the border with Nepal. Males there can sometimes top 600 pounds.

Siberian tigers in the past grew even larger, Yankovsky mentioned a male of 800 pounds, another of 779 pounds, and a tigress of 500 pounds. But recent surveys by Russian scientists showed that only three of the 13 males tagged weighed over 500 pounds, while an Indian survey from the Terrai region had five males between 550 and 600 pounds, including one super cat of 633 pounds.
Scientists believe the potential for Amurs to grow larger is still there, but hunters in the past took the larger individuals, removing them from the gene pool, and today they have a smaller prey base, making them burn up more energy finding prey. These two factors are considered the reason the Siberian tigers are no longer larger than Bengals.
The largest cat ever killed in the wild was an 857 pound Bengal tiger, killed in 1967. This huge cat is on display at the Smithsonian's Hall of Mammals.

Interesting stuff: I didn't know that the Amurs had been shrunk down so much; I guess the Russian conservationists aren't doing but such a good job protecting the subspecies.

In any event, tigers are very interesting creatures. The picture in my avatar was taken in Fayetteville (NC) in the late 1990s. Their hair is stiffer, thicker, and longer than a horse's. All to keep those thorns from interfering with their hunting, I suppose.

[Neals384]

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!

Thanks for recommending John Hart. I just finished The Last Child and thoueougjly enjoyed it.

[WV_Iron_Duke]

The Framers’ Coup by Michael J. Klarman 2016
Over the years I have wanted to know more about the Constitution Convention. But any research into that monumental gathering was/is handicapped by the absence of reporters,etc. Now we have that book. On the back cover Gordon S. Wood writes “The fullest explanation of the origins of the Constitution that we are ever likely to get in a single volume.” David A. Strauss says “If you are interested in the Constitution and you do not read this book, you are making a big mistake.” Klarman is a professor of Constitutional Law at Harvard and this is definitely a Harvard book as significant editing was done by eminent Constitutional scholars.
The first 261 pages cover the author’s intro, the financial events leading up to the Convention and the Convention itself in the summer of 1787. The rest of the narrative consists of chapters on slavery, the AntFederalists, The ratifying contest, the Bill of Rights and conclusion. (total 636 pages narrative 870 total).
If interested in reading this book, these attributes should be noted. Unless you are a constitutional/legal scholar, you are likely to find it a difficult read. If you have perused The Federalist Papers you know where I am coming from. My advice is to not try to “get” every nuance of every quote as these quotes are repeated by various participants (a criticism of the book). Generally, I read the footnotes but with this massive book don’t bother. The 180+ pages of footnotes are in the back and not much is gained by reading the long ones. Also, if you like to read in bed you might find it difficult to get in a comfortable position as the book weighs over 3 pounds.
The strength of this author’s narrative is the presenting of all the issues from every possible standpoint. It is mostly a narrative driven by quotes (a criticism). If you don’t want to read the entire book, the first part through the Convention and The Articles/Conclusion will suffice. Fortunately, the price is now just $15 down from $35 on Amazon.
If you don’t want to deal with this massive book I highly recommend the Reviews on Amazon. Like “Slavery, Succession, and The Civil War”, these reviews collectively represent an essay on the adoption of the Constitution. In just a few hours you can get all of Klarman’s ideas dissected and analyzed by reviewers knowledgeable about the subject. Be sure and read the 2 star reviews. If you decide to read the entire book, I recommend you don’t read these reviews until you get to the Bill of Rights chapter.

[pfrduke]

The Framers’ Coup by Michael J. Klarman 2016
Over the years I have wanted to know more about the Constitution Convention. But any research into that monumental gathering was/is handicapped by the absence of reporters,etc. Now we have that book. On the back cover Gordon S. Wood writes “The fullest explanation of the origins of the Constitution that we are ever likely to get in a single volume.” David A. Strauss says “If you are interested in the Constitution and you do not read this book, you are making a big mistake.” Klarman is a professor of Constitutional Law at Harvard and this is definitely a Harvard book as significant editing was done by eminent Constitutional scholars.
The first 261 pages cover the author’s intro, the financial events leading up to the Convention and the Convention itself in the summer of 1787. The rest of the narrative consists of chapters on slavery, the AntFederalists, The ratifying contest, the Bill of Rights and conclusion. (total 636 pages narrative 870 total).
If interested in reading this book, these attributes should be noted. Unless you are a constitutional/legal scholar, you are likely to find it a difficult read. If you have perused The Federalist Papers you know where I am coming from. My advice is to not try to “get” every nuance of every quote as these quotes are repeated by various participants (a criticism of the book). Generally, I read the footnotes but with this massive book don’t bother. The 180+ pages of footnotes are in the back and not much is gained by reading the long ones. Also, if you like to read in bed you might find it difficult to get in a comfortable position as the book weighs over 3 pounds.
The strength of this author’s narrative is the presenting of all the issues from every possible standpoint. It is mostly a narrative driven by quotes (a criticism). If you don’t want to read the entire book, the first part through the Convention and The Articles/Conclusion will suffice. Fortunately, the price is now just $15 down from $35 on Amazon.
If you don’t want to deal with this massive book I highly recommend the Reviews on Amazon. Like “Slavery, Succession, and The Civil War”, these reviews collectively represent an essay on the adoption of the Constitution. In just a few hours you can get all of Klarman’s ideas dissected and analyzed by reviewers knowledgeable about the subject. Be sure and read the 2 star reviews. If you decide to read the entire book, I recommend you don’t read these reviews until you get to the Bill of Rights chapter.

Klarman was my constitutional law professor at Virginia before he moved on to Harvard - thanks for flagging this.

[proffy]

Just started The Iron & Blood trilogy by Joe Abercrombie. Finished the second chapter. I'm reeeeealy satisfied with this book. Strongly recommend to everyone who likes dark fantasy

[DUKIECB]

I'm about 2/3 of the way through The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander. Reading this book has changed how I see a lot of things. Perception is not reality in a lot of what we see and believe when it comes to social injustice in this country. To say our criminal justice system is broken is an understatement. Not only is it broken it is blatantly racist. Some of the facts and statistics quoted in this book are infuriating and madenly frustrating to say the least. How these practices continue to go on, even while people such as Ms. Alexander are constantly trying to sound the whistle, is beyond belief.

I encourage you to read the book as it was very educational and quite the eye opening experience for me.

[Neals384]

The Perfectionists, by Simon Winchester. The history of engineering from the beginning of the industrial revolution, with a focus on how the ability to make things with precision was key to making our modern world possible. Interesting read, like all Winchester books.

[mpj96]

Just started The Iron & Blood trilogy by Joe Abercrombie. Finished the second chapter. I'm reeeeealy satisfied with this book. Strongly recommend to everyone who likes dark fantasy

Joe Abercrombie is fantastic. I haven't heard of the Iron & Blood trilogy, What are the titles?

I've read the First Law and Shattered Sea books. Those are all great.

If you like those you'll almost certainly also like The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch.

[aimo]

Just read Craig Johnson's latest Longmire book Depth of Winter. I want to ask him if he needed special therapy after writing this book, b/c I think I need it after reading it. If you have not read the series, start with the first The Cold Dish. The one that came out last year, Western Star, was one of my favorites, except the ending just pissed me off, which it was supposed to do. Leading into the latest, very intense. But he is a really good writer.

[WillJ]

I'm about 2/3 of the way through The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander. Reading this book has changed how I see a lot of things. Perception is not reality in a lot of what we see and believe when it comes to social injustice in this country. To say our criminal justice system is broken is an understatement. Not only is it broken it is blatantly racist. Some of the facts and statistics quoted in this book are infuriating and madenly frustrating to say the least. How these practices continue to go on, even while people such as Ms. Alexander are constantly trying to sound the whistle, is beyond belief.

I encourage you to read the book as it was very educational and quite the eye opening experience for me.

In this vein, Locking Up Our Own by James Forman is also very good. I'm a statistician working in this space, and here's one insane fact: Among black male high school dropouts, roughly 50 % of them are dead or in prison at the age of 35.