Official Book Thread - What You're Reading & Everything Book Related (merged)

[bignewt]

I've been a fan of history in general and a fan of WWII history in particular. Presently reading Rick Atkinson's The Guns at Last Light. It's the 3rd book in the liberation trilogy.

Love horror too but haven't read a good one since World War Z.

Read Penpal by Dathan Auerbach...You're welcome in advance. Read it over a year ago and it still creep me out.

 

[CagleMtnVol]

I've been a fan of history in general and a fan of WWII history in particular. Presently reading Rick Atkinson's The Guns at Last Light. It's the 3rd book in the liberation trilogy.

Love horror too but haven't read a good one since World War Z.

The Liberation Trilogy is fantastic its been a while since I read them but the first book An Army at Dawn is my favorite.

 

[Manning Up]

The Liberation Trilogy is fantastic its been a while since I read them but the first book An Army at Dawn is my favorite.

I have every intention of reading the first two.

 

[Manning Up]

Thanks bignewt. I will.

 

[chatsworth_vol]

Just finished reading "Just as I am" the autobiography of Billy Graham. I really enjoyed the read. It covered his beginnings from life on a North Carolina farm to starting and growing his crusades. He also discusses some of the challenges and doubts he had, and how he faced them. All in all I think it was well worth reading, I learned a lot I didn't know.

 

[roosterjbh]

Any Vonnegut fans? Trying to read his famous works. Just finished Sirens of Titan. I’ve also read Cats Cradle and Slaughterhouse five. Slaughterhouse is by far my favorite. Didn’t really care for Cats Cradle.

 

[volinbham]

Any Vonnegut fans? Trying to read his famous works. Just finished Sirens of Titan. I’ve also read Cats Cradle and Slaughterhouse five. Slaughterhouse is by far my favorite. Didn’t really care for Cats Cradle.

Have done all of these but it's been so long. I seem to recall Sirens of Titan being my favorite. Read most of what he wrote.

 

[pismonque]

Any Vonnegut fans? Trying to read his famous works. Just finished Sirens of Titan. I’ve also read Cats Cradle and Slaughterhouse five. Slaughterhouse is by far my favorite. Didn’t really care for Cats Cradle.

Went on a Vonnegut binge about 30 years ago, absolutely loved his work. I should really re-read some of them now, probably be an entirely different thing.

 

[NorCalVol67]

Any Vonnegut fans? Trying to read his famous works. Just finished Sirens of Titan. I’ve also read Cats Cradle and Slaughterhouse five. Slaughterhouse is by far my favorite. Didn’t really care for Cats Cradle.

Read them all about 25 - 30 years ago also. Been thinking for a while it is time to read them again. God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater is my favorite followed by Deadeye Dick. Hocus Pocus, Jailbird, Slapstick and Mother Night are among my favorites as well.

 

[roosterjbh]

Read them all about 25 - 30 years ago also. Been thinking for a while it is time to read them again. God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater is my favorite followed by Deadeye Dick. Hocus Pocus, Jailbird, Slapstick and Mother Night are among my favorites as well.

Huh, I’ll have to look into his lesser known works. I’m enjoying his books but I’m not able to get into in the same ways I know others have.

 

[Danl]

Any Vonnegut fans? Trying to read his famous works. Just finished Sirens of Titan. I’ve also read Cats Cradle and Slaughterhouse five. Slaughterhouse is by far my favorite. Didn’t really care for Cats Cradle.

One of my favorite all-time authors. Like others have noted, its time to re-read a lot of them.

 

[NorCalVol67]

And of course he had the great cameo in Back to School.

 

[ButchPlz]

Just finished Runaway Horses by Yukio Mishima. His books can be tough to read if you don't like his extremely Japanese style, but they're full of subtle Japanese culture that is great to appreciate if you catch it.

 

[OptimusPrimerib]

I’ve been reading a ton of Michael Scott Earle books. He works so quickly he’s close to being able to publish 4 books a month, all different series.

 

[VOLatile]

Just finished The Radium Girls by Kate Moore. Incredible story of perseverance and also incredibly sad. The cases led to the formation of OSHA and some of the very first industrial hygeine protections.

Now startion The Perfectionists: How Precision Engineers Created the Modern World by Simon Winchester.

 

[Orange Blazer]

I just finished "Hellhound on His Trail" by Hampton Sides. It is a great read and arguably the best account of the MLK Jr. assassination and hunt for James Earl Ray. Right. now i'm reading "Unafraid" by Adam Hamilton. It is a faith based book on dealing with fear, stress, and anxiety.

 

[marcusluvsvols]

Anyone here read the Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan? Best series of books I have ever read, but I stopped around book 8 or 9...and have never read any of the books written with or by others (he died before completing the series) those first few books were the first long novels that i truly got lost in...look up and realize I had been reading for 5 or 6 hours and it's 2am...they were my dad's favorites too, think i am gonna start over. Anyone finished the series?

 

[jjay2518]

Anyone here read the Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan? Best series of books I have ever read, but I stopped around book 8 or 9...and have never read any of the books written with or by others (he died before completing the series) those first few books were the first long novels that i truly got lost in...look up and realize I had been reading for 5 or 6 hours and it's 2am...they were my dad's favorites too, think i am gonna start over. Anyone finished the series?

It's come up a few times in this thread. There are a few who have read them all. You stopped before the best part. The last three books that Sanderson wrote were amazing. Jordan created an amazing world, but his pacing killed me through his last few.

 

[chavisut]

Anyone here read the Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan? Best series of books I have ever read, but I stopped around book 8 or 9...and have never read any of the books written with or by others (he died before completing the series) those first few books were the first long novels that i truly got lost in...look up and realize I had been reading for 5 or 6 hours and it's 2am...they were my dad's favorites too, think i am gonna start over. Anyone finished the series?

I know it has randomly come up in the RF thread a couple times and there are a few that have read them.

I've read the first 10 and plan on finishing eventually.

 

[BenGrimm]

Anyone here read the Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan? Best series of books I have ever read, but I stopped around book 8 or 9...and have never read any of the books written with or by others (he died before completing the series) those first few books were the first long novels that i truly got lost in...look up and realize I had been reading for 5 or 6 hours and it's 2am...they were my dad's favorites too, think i am gonna start over. Anyone finished the series?

In high school I read the first 3 and really liked them but just sort of fell off and never got back on. I think it’s becaise I got into Asimov and Arthur C Clarke. it just got down to my lack of interest in “medieval” type fantasy. Lord of the Rings was kinda my “been there read that” for all of it.

————

Currently reading Everybody Lies: Big Data, New Data and what the internet can tell us about wh we really are.

It’s pretty interesting stuff about analyzing mostly Google Trends search data and what it says about our culture.

 

[barknoxbrawler]

Currently reading everyone always by Bob Goff and a few Shapiro books. I love his podcast.

 

[bignewt]

Still reading The Recognitions by William Gaddis, about 100 pages left out of 950 its been a dense slow read but I shall overcome!

 

[bignewt]

Finished this bad boy. In places it was amazing, in others it was flat out work. I had to download a character list to keep up with who was who. Worth it though. On Time's greatest novels of the 20th century.

 

[YankeeVol]

The Kind Worth Killing

I enjoyed it. Didn’t like the ending though

 

[firestorm]

The Moneky's Raincoat
9/10
It is a wonderful 1st book in this successful Los Angeles PI series The Elvis Cole PI Series.


He quotes Jiminy Cricket and carries a .38. He's a literate, wisecracking Vietnam vet who is determined never to grow up that is a summary of Elvis Cole the main character and he does have wisecracks along with the other traits.
Praised as a Dazzling First Novel along with it's a winner, and that famous Mystery Author Robert B Parker has some competition on his hands and they aren't wrong also gives you great reasons to read the 2nd book which I have.

It has a simple straight forward plot Elvis Cole is hired by a woman to find a kidnapped kid and a missing father, and you can find out the why after reading the book. He has a partner Joe Pike to help him, and is set in Los Angeles.
Possibly Robert Crais was inspired by the great gritty action movies 48 Hours, Cellular, Red Heat, and Lethal Weapon because it does have that similar style.

Spoiler

The Issues or flaws which aren't much that I have are Joe Pike a badass and other main Character that is Elvis's Partner for the Private Investigator Company isn't shown much in action.
He freakin easily killed a Bad Guy using a knife and that didn't intimidate a other guy to reveal information where is the kid with all he knows, and not to lie otherwise he would be killed the same vicious violent way.
Also Elvis apologizes to a kid which I don't understand why because I don't recall reading what wrong action he used that he would have to apologize to a kid.



From start to the end a great book with flawed believable 3 dimensional characters including Elvis a main character and his Partner Joe Pike, likable good characters and a main Villain with a believable motive for the kidnapping, a cliffhanger ending that likely resumes in book 2 Stalking The Angel, and the whole Elvis gets his PI licence removed in the 2nd book could happen because he disobeyed a lawyer saying he and Joe are off the kidnapping case if he continues the investigation his PI licence will be removed, etc.
This is set in Los Angeles, and does seem similar to the great gritty Action movie 48 Hours.
Elvis does listen to a Lakers game, this is set in Los Angeles.
The 1st 100 pages can be called the build up.
Final 101 pages are terrific with Rated R action, a rescue, memorable lines, a death threat to Elvis by a Ruthless Villain a Narcotics Kingpin that has a syndicate, etc.
Elvis is a wise cracker, can clean up other persons messes as a PI so a moral motive why he is a PI, and has a 9mm Beretta gun with hollow point hot loads that he uses and makes the results damn powerful when he shoots foes it's like steroid bullets.
He shot 2 hollow point bullets picked the bad guy uo that kicked him back off the stool.
Joe Pike gets opportunities to shine including killing easily a bad guy with a knife which coerces another bad guy not to lie.
Elvis has to find a kidnapped kid also his father that he finds out was murdered trying to prevent the kidnapping. That's the main simple plot with his partner Joe Pike helping him.
Elvis will get his hands dirty to rescue a kid, also Joe.
The father wasn't a good husband but he cared about his son so still made a likable character because he attempted to protect his son from ruthless Predators which is admirable because he was outgunned and would not back down showing to be valiant, caring, and selfless putting his son's safety above his own safety risking his life to prevent the kidnapping.
Narcotics were stolen and the Kingpin decides to make a example showing what happens when a person steals his narcotics.
I utterly recommend this book, and will be starting stalking the angel which I assume resumes where the 1st book ended similar to how John Wick Chapter 2 and other sequel movies resume where the 1st movie ended.