[topher65]

Just finished "Hold Tight" by Harlan Coban and about to start "Promise Me" by the same author.....Coban is a great mystery/suspense writer and I would highly recommend him.

His series about Myron Bolitar is what got me hooked and "Promise Me" is his latest.....I suggest reading the series as it is a lot of fun....Myron is a Sports Agent.

[Pirata Morado]

The Demon-Haunted World, by Carl Sagan.

[LouKlimchock]

Reading:

The Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein - the most important book of the decade
The Black Swan by Nassim Nicholas Taleb - the second most important book of the decade
A Fraction of the Whole, by Steve Toltz - wild and funny but not important
Liver, by Will Self - not even accidentally important
The Hunt in the Forest, by John Burnside, Scotland's most brilliant poet
Oblichya Poza Svitlinoyu, by Halyna Kruk, ditto but Ukrainian
Sea Room, by Adam Nicholson
Hamlet - a brilliant, recent, well, pretty recent, Ukrainian translation

Re-reading:

Notes from the Underground, by Dostoyevsky
Wild Sheep Cheese, by Murakami
Christmas Verses, by Joseph Brodsky

Re-browsing:

Trial, by Kafka
Unbearable Lightness of Being, by Milan Kundera
Tinker, Tailor, Solider, Spy, by John LeCarre

Glad to be done reading:

Good Soldier, Ford Maddox Ford


There are more which are mostly dying on the vine but that's most of today's list.

[MtGrizzly]

Working my way through the "Dresden Files" series - a lot more entertaining than I thought it would be. Great airplane/airport fodder for the Kindle.

Also just finished up "The Name of the Wind" by Patrick Rothfuss. Extremely impressive debut fantasy novel. I can't wait for the next installment.

[CrustyJuggler]

DannyCore, on Mar 29 2009, 01:36 AM, said:

Just finished the sword of truth series by Terry Goodkind.


SO MANY PAGES. I am done reading forever. Though I did really like the series.

Almost a year later... but.

I started reading this series in 2009 and got 5 books deep before I dumped it. I love the sci-fi but Goodkind is a whacko.

[CrustyJuggler]

MtGrizzly, on Dec 27 2009, 05:13 PM, said:

Working my way through the "Dresden Files" series - a lot more entertaining than I thought it would be. Great airplane/airport fodder for the Kindle.

Also just finished up "The Name of the Wind" by Patrick Rothfuss. Extremely impressive debut fantasy novel. I can't wait for the next installment.

LOVE the Dresden Files! Reading Death Masks right now. Fun reads that are deeper than you would expect.

Thinking about getting the smaller version of the Kindle but still hard to drop $260 on it.

[phredmojo]

CrustyJuggler, on Jan 28 2010, 01:24 PM, said:

Almost a year later... but.

I started reading this series in 2009 and got 5 books deep before I dumped it. I love the sci-fi but Goodkind is a whacko.

why is he a whacko

[CrustyJuggler]

phredmojo, on Jan 28 2010, 06:04 PM, said:

why is he a whacko

Just the way he writes. I think anyone who's read The Sword of Truth series might know what I'm talking about. He gives a new angle to the term "all over the place". Just very hard to drudge through. Sometimes he gets off path to extent of having 100's of pages of unnecessary crap. A LOT of it is unbelievably boring to read. And I hear it gets worse from where I stopped. I honestly don't know how many reviews I've read that recommend stopping at book 4.

That's only part of the "whacko" impression I get from him. I honestly think the guy may have some woman/mommy issues. I admittedly don't read a ton but I was amazed how many times Goodkind puts his female characters in a position to constantly be ...uh... sexually assaulted. In 5 books, there had to be at least a dozen instances of woman getting assaulted (or near misses). And we are talking some horrid shit here. Makes for very uncomfortable reading that really does take you out of the immersion and makes you think about why the author is writing it this way. I dunno, as much of a Sci-Fi nut as I am, this really wasn't for me. Too much preachy writing, too many "crimes" against woman and not enough chopping up bad guys. Oh and some of the characters he forces on the reader are (or were for me) completely garbage. He lures you in with the hero and heroine and outlines them with a few interesting support characters... then.. wham!! You're in the middle of book 5 reading about a completely new cast of unrelated and uninteresting people that have had nothing to do with the story to this point. I know I asked myself a number of times, "what the hell is going on with this series?". Then I finally got fed up and gave it up as a bad job.

I dig the Legend of the Seeker mini-series though...

This post has been edited by CrustyJuggler: 29 January 2010 - 12:49 AM

[phredmojo]

CrustyJuggler, on Jan 29 2010, 12:47 AM, said:

Just the way he writes. I think anyone who's read The Sword of Truth series might know what I'm talking about. He gives a new angle to the term "all over the place". Just very hard to drudge through. Sometimes he gets off path to extent of having 100's of pages of unnecessary crap. A LOT of it is unbelievably boring to read. And I hear it gets worse from where I stopped. I honestly don't know how many reviews I've read that recommend stopping at book 4.

That's only part of the "whacko" impression I get from him. I honestly think the guy may have some woman/mommy issues. I admittedly don't read a ton but I was amazed how many times Goodkind puts his female characters in a position to constantly be ...uh... sexually assaulted. In 5 books, there had to be at least a dozen instances of woman getting assaulted (or near misses). And we are talking some horrid shit here. Makes for very uncomfortable reading that really does take you out of the immersion and makes you think about why the author is writing it this way. I dunno, as much of a Sci-Fi nut as I am, this really wasn't for me. Too much preachy writing, too many "crimes" against woman and not enough chopping up bad guys. Oh and some of the characters he forces on the reader are (or were for me) completely garbage. He lures you in with the hero and heroine and outlines them with a few interesting support characters... then.. wham!! You're in the middle of book 5 reading about a completely new cast of unrelated and uninteresting people that have had nothing to do with the story to this point. I know I asked myself a number of times, "what the hell is going on with this series?". Then I finally got fed up and gave it up as a bad job.

I dig the Legend of the Seeker mini-series though...

i read all 12 books and liked it and didn't get that impression at all. the tv series while decent pales in comparison to the books. not as good as jordan, but definetly in the top 10 of fantasy series

[IWantZduriencik'sJob]

Just finished "Chew on This" by Eric Schlosser and Charles Wilson. Basically everything you did not want to know about fast food fits. 16 years old that need to get gastric bypass surgery because of all the fast food they have ingested. Sad read.

It does have a section were school lunches consisted of Subway on Tuesday, McDonald's on Wednesday, Pizza Hut on Thursday. The menu on Monday and Tuesday did not look much healthier. The book is written for high school and middle school students.

[IWantZduriencik'sJob]

senior octobre, on Jul 27 2009, 11:39 AM, said:

The book starts out with a story of Doc Maynard coming West. Murray Morgan has a nice flowing discriptive style. It's a easy read. So far, very enjoyable.

I took a history class called the History of Tacoma at UWT. The class was taught by Murray and another local historian. Great class. I have a signed copy of one of his books. Enjoyed his teaching and what he wrote. Great story teller in person and in print.

[Schuxu]

Where men win glory - The odyssey of Pat Tillman by Jon Krakauer.

[KingCorran]

Recently read:
Hunger Games (Collins, Suzanne). Interesting, and poignant. Wish I could afford the sequel.
The Furies of Calderon (Butcher, Jim). A bit weak at times, but overall solid. Will definitely someday read the next two books in the series (at least).
The Last Light of the Sun (Kay, Guy Gavriel). Very intriguing fantasy adaptation of Norse mythology. A little to sexually graphic for my tastes at moment... but good. I did prefer Kay's Ysabel in some ways... but not all.

[IWantZduriencik'sJob]

For those that want a great read please try ODD Man Out: A Year on the Mound with a Minor Leaguer. This book is harsh on Casey Kotch's dad. Has a scary look at race issues in the baseball minors. Makes you think twice about a lot players currently playing in the bigs. Aybar and Callaspo(KC) both look terrible at age of 18 in their actions and behavior.

This post has been edited by IWantZduriencik'sJob: 24 April 2010 - 01:20 PM

[Sancho Panza]

IWantZduriencik'sJob, on Feb 4 2010, 10:19 PM, said:

I took a history class called the History of Tacoma at UWT. The class was taught by Murray and another local historian. Great class. I have a signed copy of one of his books. Enjoyed his teaching and what he wrote. Great story teller in person and in print.

Would the other local historian be Magden? I've got his book, Furusato - Tacoma-Pierce County Japanese.

[IWantZduriencik'sJob]

Sancho Panza, on Apr 24 2010, 02:33 PM, said:

Would the other local historian be Magden? I've got his book, Furusato - Tacoma-Pierce County Japanese.

Yes! I could not remember his name at the time of the post.

[senior octobre]

Just picked up, "The Gospel according to Casey; Casey Stengel's inimitable, instructional, historical baseball book," by Ira Berkow & Jim Kaplan, (St. Martin's Press, New York, March 1992).

Quote

Open it up to any page and you'll find gems."

-The New York Times Book Review




A most read for those interested in the history of the game. Another, umm, throne book, as well.

[senior octobre]

Another pick to click:

"The Glory of Their Times; The story of The Early Days of Baseball Told by the Men Who Played it."

by Lawrence S. Ritter (Quill, William Morrow, NY, NY, The Enlarged Edition 1985).

Another great book. This one is composed of many, many chapters each dedicated to a different player in the early days of the game. Players telling their story in their own words. Just a few: Rube Marquard, Lefty O'Doul, Goose Goslin, Paul Waner, Hank Greenberg, Joe Wood, ect,.

A very enjoyable book. S.O.

[senior octobre]

Another one: the Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon by Stephen King (Scribner, 1999, New York, NY 10020).

A novel.

[MtGrizzly]

"To Hell on a Fast Horse", by Mark Lee Gardner. Interesting historical look at Billy the Kid and Pat Garrett.

"Appaloosa", "Resolution" and "Brimstone" by Robert B Parker. Solid western series that gets a bit repetitive by the third book. The fourth one in the series "Blue Eyed Devil" is out now and loaded into the Kindle.

"The Blade Itself", "Before they are Hanged" and "The Last Argument of Kings" by Joe Abercrombie. Excellent fantasy series.

The "Lost Fleet" series by Jack Campbell. Good old fashioned space opera.