Book Thread. I have nothing good to read.

fugop · Post #161 » by **fugop** » Wed Jul 13, 2011 8:10 pm

Just finished Herbert Croly's The Promise of American Life. Before that, Kevin Phillips The Politics of Rich and Poor and Earl & Merle Black's The Vital South; How Presidents are Elected. Before those, I reread the Game of Thrones books. The next book, Dance with Dragons, came out yesterday; I'll head down to the bookstore tonight.

dobrojim · Post #162 » by **dobrojim** » Wed Jul 13, 2011 8:16 pm

although cons may generally not care for K Phillips (nothing
more galling than a turncoat), I find him reliably interesting
and worth reading. I had not heard of this recent book.
Sounds like something right up my ally.

fugop · Post #163 » by **fugop** » Thu Jul 14, 2011 12:57 am

It's an old book, 1990, the first that would really qualify as a break with his Nixon days.

Scabs304 · Post #164 » by **Scabs304** » Fri Jul 15, 2011 12:38 pm

fugop wrote:Just finished Herbert Croly's The Promise of American Life. Before that, Kevin Phillips The Politics of Rich and Poor and Earl & Merle Black's The Vital South; How Presidents are Elected. Before those, I reread the Game of Thrones books. The next book, Dance with Dragons, came out yesterday; I'll head down to the bookstore tonight.

What how did I miss this coming out? I have to get it right away...... Been waiting years for that crap to come out. Now I see what you need to do to get a writer to finish a book in a series pay him a bunch of money to adapt it into a TV series (don't have the premium channels, but can't wait to buy the DVD series).

fugop · Post #165 » by **fugop** » Fri Jul 15, 2011 4:49 pm

I finished it up last night. Much better than Feast for Crows, the pacing picked up, much long-needed character development.

Nivek · Post #166 » by **Nivek** » Fri Jul 15, 2011 4:55 pm

Seeing as this is a basketball message board, I'll put in a plug for Dean Oliver's "Basketball on Paper." Excellent book on statistical analysis in basketball.

And, while I don't agree with David Berri's approach, "Wages of Wins" is also good.

And "Moneyball."

hrbngr · Post #167 » by **hrbngr** » Fri Jul 15, 2011 10:28 pm

per the ASOIAF series, I loved the 1st three books, but AFFC and now Dragons, I am not certain I will read it based on the Amazon reviews so far. I am beginning to think that that his unusual habit of killing off major characters in each novel has come back to haunt him, as any new characters coming along are just pale shadows of those original ones. So, we have fewer and fewer chars in each book that we care about, and more and more filler before anything of note occurs, as well as more stupid cliffhangers to keep us interested in the next book--wonder how long that will take to come out. American Tolkien..fat chance!

Dr Positivity · Post #168 » by **Dr Positivity** » Mon Jul 18, 2011 7:23 pm

Just read the True Crime Bill James book, it's pretty addictive. He'll convince you there's a good chance JFK was actually killed by a secret service man's gun accidentally going off

On the topic of fantasy/sci-fi recommendations, my all time favorite book(s) is the Book of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe (there's 4 of them, or two if you buy the doubled up versions). It should be considered pantheon material but the sci-fi bias...

Severn Hoos · Post #169 » by **Severn Hoos** » Tue Jul 19, 2011 8:01 pm

Been a good book week for me. (lots of time in the air, the only real chance I get to read.)

Finished Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell (thx Kev), Superfreakonomics, and State of Fear by Michael Crichton. Interesting when taken as a whole, BTW.

More comments - especially on Outliers - but will probably save them for the Politics thread, they really belong there instead.

Post #170 » by **W. Unseld** » Fri Aug 5, 2011 9:13 pm

I need a fictional page turner, preferably non-political. I could also do a great/deep book if it's one that ever 10-15 pages you have to think about what you just read b/c you realize it's had a profound effect on you. I guess I'm leaning towards the page turner b/c I'm terrified I'm becoming more ADD. I'm even having trouble making it through graphic novels or movies.

Edit: I'll take a non-fiction, but not political or pure horror.

Ed Wood · Post #171 » by **Ed Wood** » Fri Aug 5, 2011 11:30 pm

A compromise, or marriage of the two, for me, is anything by Michael Chabon, particularly The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay or The Yiddish Policeman's Union. The height of genre fiction, you might say.

Induveca · Post #172 » by **Induveca** » Sat Aug 6, 2011 3:28 pm

Any good fiction people can recommend? I've got some annoyingly long flights, and need a book or two to kill 20 hours of utter boredom.

Nigel Tufnel · Post #173 » by **Nigel Tufnel** » Sat Aug 6, 2011 6:41 pm

Loved Kavalier and Clay. Yiddish Policeman not so much. Just finished The Help. Very much a page turner.

Nivek · Post #174 » by **Nivek** » Mon Aug 8, 2011 6:34 pm

Induveca wrote:Any good fiction people can recommend? I've got some annoyingly long flights, and need a book or two to kill 20 hours of utter boredom.

Lee Child's "Reacher" series is a good page-turner.

Also, check out Harlan Coben's Myron Bolitar series. Bolitar is a sports agent who was a college basketball star until he wrecked his knee. They're pretty good.

Mizerooskie · Post #175 » by **Mizerooskie** » Mon Aug 8, 2011 9:11 pm

KiNgSbOi wrote:Anybody have some recommendations for a first time book reader? I want to start reading some good books, I prefer horror novels, sci-fi and mystery. Anything along those lines will grasp my attention, so if you could throw some suggestions my way that would be greatly appreciated!

A bit on the obscure side, but A Star Curiously Singing by Kerry Nietz is excellent. Pretty quick sci-fi read.

daSwami · Post #176 » by **daSwami** » Tue Aug 9, 2011 4:36 pm

"A Billion Wicked Thoughts" - an update on Kinsey, only this time tracking the Internet pornography preferences of a million study participants.

Post #177 » by **W. Unseld** » Tue Aug 9, 2011 6:23 pm

daSwami wrote:"A Billion Wicked Thoughts" - an update on Kinsey, only this time tracking the Internet pornography preferences of a million study participants.

Based on what I'm seeing on company computers to discovery responses, I would imagine that would make for some d*mn crazy reading...

daSwami · Post #178 » by **daSwami** » Mon Aug 22, 2011 5:43 pm

Disclaimer: I'm always reluctant the recommend fiction, as I rarely "love" a book as much as the person who recommended it to me apparently did. Taste is subjective that way, and mine especially so.

That said, I've got multiple books going at once now, the one i'm enjoying most is the novel "Busy Monsters" by William Giraldi. Its gotten mixed reviews by critics, but I like the author's style. The narrator reminds me a bit of Ignatius Riley.

Also reading Mary Karr's "Lit," a portion of which recounts her friendship/romance with David Foster Wallace, whose name/identity she did not reveal in the book. It was only after DFW's death that she admitted the character was indeed DFW. Anyhoo, its a great read: dark, funny and provides - I think - a spot-on insight into the dysfunctional mind of an addict.

doclinkin · Post #179 » by **doclinkin** » Tue Aug 23, 2011 11:40 am

daSwami wrote:Disclaimer: I'm always reluctant to recommend fiction, as I rarely "love" a book as much as the person who recommended it to me apparently did. Taste is subjective that way, and mine especially so.

That said, I've got multiple books going at once now, the one i'm enjoying most is the novel "Busy Monsters" by William Giraldi. Its gotten mixed reviews by critics, but I like the author's style. The narrator reminds me a bit of Ignatius Riley.

Also reading Mary Karr's "Lit," a portion of which recounts her friendship/romance with David Foster Wallace, whose name/identity she did not reveal in the book. It was only after DFW's death that she admitted the character was indeed DFW. Anyhoo, its a great read: dark, funny and provides - I think - a spot-on insight into the dysfunctional mind of an addict.

Per the recommend I'm 60-odd pages into 'Lit'. So far good. She can be a bit writerly but those occasional overly self-impressed sentences make it a more accessible read for me at times, insasmuch as I think, hey, I could do that. Like, I can't built a finished cabinet with dovetail joins, but I bet I could bang together a workbench that wouldn't fall down. I love reading books in vernacular, and quite often her sentences are very 'spoken aloud'. So.

Since we agree on Exley and Karr, who else should I read when I'm done with this one?

Nivek · Post #180 » by **Nivek** » Tue Aug 23, 2011 1:36 pm

Check out www.BookLamp.com. It's basically an attempt at Pandora, but for books. It doesn't have everything in there, but it's pretty interesting. So, let's you like "The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest" by Stieg Larsson.

BookLamp would suggest:

- The Girl Who Played with Fire (Larsson)
- The Troubled Man by Henning Mankell
- Triple Identity by Haggai Carmon
- Murder at the Library of Congress by Margaret Truman

etc.

I just tried "Persuader" by Lee Child. The system spit out a couple authors I've never heard of, a couple of Child's other books (which are both similar and very good), and The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler, which would be a GREAT but unexpected suggestion.