So. . . What Are You Reading? (2012 Edition)

Discussion in 'Books' started by Ismitje, Jan 1, 2012.

  1. Black.White&Red

    Sep 9, 2009
    Club:
    DC United
    I have always been fascinated by the Internet, so:

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    "... years ago, it didn't exist. Today, ... people worldwide are surfing the Net. Where Wizards Stay Up Late is the exciting story of the pioneers responsible for creating the most talked about, most influential, and most far-reaching communications breakthrough since the invention of the telephone."
     
  2. Val1

    Val1 Member+

    Arsenal
    Mar 12, 2004
    MD's Eastern Shore
    Club:
    Arsenal FC
    On the Beach by Nevil Shute.

    I've never known what to make of Shute. I loved A Town Like Alice, and I've know about On the Beach for years, but never put together that they were both written by Shute...

    On the Beach is an interesting take on the post-apocalyptic theme in that the survivors of the nuclear winter have a fairly long time to prepare for their end. There's little anarchy, more mundanity than anything else and really more of a glass half-full vs glass half-empty contrast to thinking about the end of it all. An enjoyable read overall, even given the depressing subject matter.
     
  3. usscouse

    usscouse BigSoccer Supporter

    May 3, 2002
    Orygun coast
    Both good reads, aren't they. All though "Alice" would be more of an Ausie book. Interesting that they haven't lost their appeal after some 30 years. (when I read them) He wrote other captivating books that might be worth looking up. Vintage classics they call them now. :)
     
  4. Dr. Wankler

    Dr. Wankler Member+

    May 2, 2001
    The Electric City
    Club:
    Chicago Fire
    Over the next 10 days or so, I'll mostly be reading Freshman research papers and the like, so I rushed to knock off another Simenon novel this week:

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    Dirty Snow by Georges Simenon. Just as the last one I read was comparable to (and better than) Sartre's Nausea, this one is somewhat similar to Camus' The Stranger. And better than. This is a novel, set in France during the occupation, about a complete POS small-time criminal (his mom is the madam of the brothel that mostly services occupying forces) who commits a couple of murders and is eventually (for unrelated and never fully explained reasons) detained by the Nazis. Very grim book. Not for people who can't read novels without sympathetic characters.
     
  5. Ismitje

    Ismitje Super Moderator

    Dec 30, 2000
    The Palouse
    Club:
    Real Salt Lake
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Couldn't make Cyteen work for me for some reason - I'll try to pick it up this summer. Instead I read Bossypants which was an enjoyable several hours, made even more so because my 16 year old daughter snagged it before me - and now she wants to go see Second City this week when one of the touring companies is here in Pullman. She never would have gone for it before.

    I am also about 40 pages into an intriguing novel set in the aftermath of he Balkan War:

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    Tea Obreht's The Tiger's Wife. I'll provide more info on the other end of the read, but so far the story, characters, and setting are remarkable.
     
    1 person likes this.
  6. SoccerPrime

    SoccerPrime Moderator
    Staff Member

    All of them
    Apr 14, 2003
    Club:
    Real Salt Lake
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    ^ nothing about golf though? :D
     
  7. Black.White&Red

    Sep 9, 2009
    Club:
    DC United
    [​IMG]


    "Inscribed on a wall at Central Intelligence Agency headquarters in Langley, Virginia, is a quote from the Bible: "And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free" (John 8:32). On the other side of the lobby, five rows of stars are etched into the white marble wall, each representing a CIA officer killed in the line of duty. Below the stars is a case containing the "Book of Honor"--"a tome as sacred to the Agency as if it held a splinter of the true cross," writes Ted Gup--and in it are the names of the men and women who gave their lives serving the CIA. Well, not all the names; about half the entries are blank because the CIA says it doesn't want to compromise ongoing operations. Yet, as Gup argues in his own tome, also called The Book of Honor, the truth behind many of the stories that aren't being told threatens nothing--except perhaps the agency's own sense of shame over botched operations. "
     
  8. monster

    monster Member

    Oct 19, 1999
    Hanover, PA
    Club:
    DC United
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Read that years ago. From what I remember, it was a really well done book.
     
    1 person likes this.
  9. bungadiri

    bungadiri Super Moderator
    Staff Member

    Jan 25, 2002
    Acnestia
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Had never heard of this.

    Do you know about Legacy of Ashes?

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    I thought it was excellent. I went to see Weiner speak a few years ago, at the Ford Library, and was impressed with him. He traces the implications of the decision--post WWII--to emphasize operations/interventions over intelligence gathering.
     
    1 person likes this.
  10. Black.White&Red

    Sep 9, 2009
    Club:
    DC United
    Finished it last night. Great book. Very well done indeed.
     
  11. Black.White&Red

    Sep 9, 2009
    Club:
    DC United
    Never heard of this. I'll have to look it up.

    I have a few others regarding the CIA that I want to read, but I do not want to read them back to back because it may be too much.
     
  12. Black.White&Red

    Sep 9, 2009
    Club:
    DC United
    [​IMG]

    I read this book years ago, but I wanted to sort of skim through it again, as I am planning on reading a book on the recent mortgage problems.
     
  13. Val1

    Val1 Member+

    Arsenal
    Mar 12, 2004
    MD's Eastern Shore
    Club:
    Arsenal FC
    My daughter showed me the show Sherlock this past month so I'm trying yet again to develop an affinity for Sherlock Holmes. Not reading The Sign of Four, the only novel I haven't read by now, but sticking with the short stories from The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. Having seen Moriarty referenced in sooo many ways, I'm looking forward to seeing him revealed on the page.
     
    1 person likes this.
  14. Felixx219

    Felixx219 BigSoccer Supporter

    Nov 8, 2004
    Kansas City, MO
    Club:
    Kansas City Wizards
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    I am too lazy to look up pictures but I just re-read the Hunger Games series this week to gear up for the movie. I was only planning on reading the first one but couldnt help picking up the next one each time.
     
  15. usscouse

    usscouse BigSoccer Supporter

    May 3, 2002
    Orygun coast
    I was looking for some casual reading when taking books back to the library last week and picked up one by "Lee Child". Since then I've read 2 more of his.

    Fun easy read with the larger than life hero. Perhaps it's the military background even if the hero was Military Police..!

    He's a pretty prolific writer so I know where to look for a book, fictional, detective, action, that keeps you going.
     
  16. SoccerPrime

    SoccerPrime Moderator
    Staff Member

    All of them
    Apr 14, 2003
    Club:
    Real Salt Lake
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    First 2 were great but I lost interest by 3. You?
     
    1 person likes this.
  17. Felixx219

    Felixx219 BigSoccer Supporter

    Nov 8, 2004
    Kansas City, MO
    Club:
    Kansas City Wizards
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    The last book wasnt as good as the first two but I think that is because the best parts of the story occurred in the arena. The part with them running on the Capital were not particularly well-written but I am finding that in the second read, I like the last book better because I know that going in.

    I never lost interest at all, I think the series is fantastic - especially for a young adult series. I think it is a very good story and I thought the ending was well-done despite the execution of the book not being on par with the other two.
     
    1 person likes this.
  18. Dr. Wankler

    Dr. Wankler Member+

    May 2, 2001
    The Electric City
    Club:
    Chicago Fire
    [​IMG]

    The Sacred Journey by Charles Foster. A book from a series about "ancient practices" in Christianity. This one is about pilgrimmage. Found it on a remainder table in a bookstore (well, not really a bookstore. Barnes and Noble). Checked reviews on Amazon and saw it had a lot of one star reviews. Since the one-stars were all given by fundies and Tridentine Mass-worshipping papists, I knew this would be a good book. And it is.

    And tonight assuming I get enough papers graded this afternoon, I'll finish this one:

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    Three Beds in Manhatten by Georges Simenon. This one starts off slower than the other two I've read recently, but it started picking up last night and got interesting enough that I nearly decided to stay up a couple more hours to finish it. Hopefully, I'll have two hours to bag it tonight.
     
  19. CrewArsenal

    CrewArsenal Member

    Feb 23, 2007
    Pickerington, Ohio
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    First in a series. Decent story, the battle scenes were portrayed well, giving nod to the chaos that often surrounds such things despite careful planning. Worth reading further in the series.
     
  20. Black.White&Red

    Sep 9, 2009
    Club:
    DC United
    [​IMG]

    "In this remarkable tour de force of investigative reporting, James Bamford exposes the inner workings of America's largest, most secretive, and arguably most intrusive intelligence agency. The NSA has long eluded public scrutiny, but The Puzzle Palace penetrates its vast network of power and unmasks the people who control it, often with shocking disregard for the law. With detailed information on the NSA's secret role in the Korean Airlines disaster, Iran-Contra, the first Gulf War, and other major world events of the 80s and 90s, this is a brilliant account of the use and abuse of technological espionage."
     
  21. Ismitje

    Ismitje Super Moderator

    Dec 30, 2000
    The Palouse
    Club:
    Real Salt Lake
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    The Tiger's Wife is worth the time. Obreht is quite young - 27 - and this is her debut novel, which won the UK's Orange Prize (best full length novel written by a female in English) last year. I've read non-fiction set in the Balkans, but this is the first work of fiction I've read set there. There are three story lines intertwined: a young female doctor, her grandfather as a professional, and her grandfather as a child in a small village. Exotic animals are a subtheme (hence the title). I recommend it.

    Now reading Karen Russell's Swamplandia! - about six chapters in and enjoying it very much.

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    Russell is also young - 30 - and this is also her debut novel, though she had a collection of short stories published earlier.
     
  22. TheSlipperyOne

    TheSlipperyOne Member+

    Feb 29, 2000
    Denver
    Club:
    Arsenal FC
    I finally finished:

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    I definitely like the series but it's not as great as some people make it out to be. Entertaining fantasy to be sure but I never read much deeper into them. I do wish we wouldn't have to wait another (I'm betting) five years for the next book.
     
  23. Dr. Wankler

    Dr. Wankler Member+

    May 2, 2001
    The Electric City
    Club:
    Chicago Fire
    There was a relatively happy ending in the Simenon novel, Three Beds in Manhatten, and the most impressive part was he brings it about without really "redeeming" the fairly unsympathetic characters. Well done, Georges.

    Nearly done with...

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    The Year of Living Like Jesus by Ed Dobson. Normally, I don't care much for books by graduates of Bob Jones University who taught at Liberty University for several years, but this one is surprising. Not as good or as funny as Jacobs' The Year of Living Biblically, which gave Dobson the idea, but not bad.

    And for a class I'm teaching...

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    Elements of Style by Strunk and White. Always amazes me how much college students actually don't hate reading this.
     
  24. CrewArsenal

    CrewArsenal Member

    Feb 23, 2007
    Pickerington, Ohio
    [​IMG]

    Listened to the audio version; best part was the Q&A with their wives.
     
  25. nicodemus

    nicodemus Member+

    Sep 3, 2001
    Cidade Mágica
    Club:
    PAOK Saloniki
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Towards the end of last year, I started reading the Harry Potter series. I'd always told myself I didn't have interest in them, that I didn't want to read them, wouldn't read them, etc. I agreed to a "book swap" of sorts with someone and I agreed to read the first few of them if they agreed to read some stuff I suggested. Well, I'm now past the agreed amount of the swap and am on Book 5 of Harry Potter by my own choosing and I'm actually enjoying them. I finished volumes 3 & 4 earlier this year.

    I'm sure this comes as a surprise to Dr. Wankler and others around here that have seen the kind of stuff I usually read over the last several years. Oh well, they're fun.
     

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