Posted on 06/27/2014 8:33:15 AM PDT by Tax-chick
What are you reading? There used to be a quarterly "What are you reading?" thread, but I haven't seen it for a long time. I got a lot of good book suggestions that way, and I miss it.
So here's a thread! If you're reading something interesting you think others would like, or something boring you'd recommend we all avoid, jump in! If you have a ping list of FReepers who might be interested, ping them!
Read “The Book Thief” a few weeks ago. Excellent book which I highly recommend.
My favorite Koontz book is Lightning. It’s about this woman named Laura who seems to have a guardian angel in the form of a handsome, but rather cold-eyed blond man who is a little scary. He’s shown up at random intervals in her life to save her from horrific situations, but he never seems to age... it’s good!
Oooh, another one to add to the list, LOL. Thanks!
So far I’m finding Koontz’s books to be genuinely terrifying (the ones I’ve read, anyway).
Oh, he’s good. After Lightning, my second favorite is The Door to December, about a little girl whose father kidnapped her from her mother and performed psychological experiments on her until he and his confederates were brutally murdered and the little girl escaped. But that’s Chapter One. Really good.
A Buddy of mine back in Texas worked for NASA back in the day when NASA was flying them for research and he worked on the Environmental Systems. He also did some work on Skylab. I was always interested in the SR-71 even as a kid.
It might be Plevier; google it, they have a couple of different spellings...the books are fiction, but VERY realistic...hope this helps
I’ve read all of Jan Karon’s “Mitford” books and am now reading her “Father Tim” books. All focus around an Episcopilian priest, Father Timothy Cavanaugh, and a town called Mitford set in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains.
Loved Karon’s characterizations of the locals and the spirit in which the books were written. I’m not Episcoplian; but can appreciate following Father Tim’s ministry and personal growth.
Full of laughter and tears. I’m going to hate it when I run out of Karon’s books; but, I have hundreds of others waiting on my Kindle. :)
Tale of Two Cities is wonderful.
I read somewhere that Dickens’ favorite was David Copperfield.
Yep
I went ahead and got the Kindle paperwhite so I could consume ALL of Freeper Travis Mgee’s (sp?) books. (Matt Bracken)
Funny thing now - I can’t remember the titles or authors haha!
(there’s no real ‘book cover’ to memorize or remember)
AND
I read more voraciously than ever!
Unintended Consequences - isn’t that a requirement in order to FReep?
;)
An early Communist activist, József Pogány, aka John Pepper, was active for a while in this country and wrote the pamphlet American Negro Problems (New York.: Workers' Library, 1928) which called on American blacks to secede and form their own nation. The pamphlet was reprinted in the 1960's by the John Birch Society. Pogány/Pepper later moved to Moscow, where he was liquidated in one of Stalin's purges.
Anyone interested in the early history of the Cold War, Soviet espionage, or "McCarthyism" would be interested in Sakmyster's earlier work Red Conspirator: J. Peters and the American Communist Underground (Urbana, Ill.: University of Illinois Press, 2011). This is the story of "J. Peters," one of the many aliases of a highly influential yet mysterious Soviet agent during the 1930's and 1940's who was deported to Communist Hungary, where he became a celebrity. Sakmyster, who is apparently fluent in Hungarian, was able to gain access to previously secret documents so as to be able to finally tell his story.
Another book along this line that I have recently read is The Lost Spy: An American in Stalin's Secret Service (New York: Norton, 2008), which is about an American Communist who spies for the Soviet Union and is rewarded for his service by being thrown into Stalin's Gulag.
1.) The Circle by Dave Eggers ***
2.) The Auschwitz Escape by Joel C. Rosenberg ***1/2
3.) The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski ***
4.) Iron House by John Hart ***1/2
5.) Bushville Wins by John Kilma ***
6.) The Book Thief by Markus Zusak ****
7.) Goat Mountain by David Vann **
8.) The Longest Ride by Nicholas Sparks ***1/2
9.) Winter of the World by Ken Follett ****
10.) Fall of Giants by Ken Follett ****
11.) And Then the Roof Caved In by David Faber **1/2
12.) The Talent Code by Daniel Coyle ****
13.) 11-22-63 by Stephen King **1/2
A few brief notes:
The final book in the Century Trilogy by Ken Follett will be released in September.
The Story of Edgar Sawtelle was an excellent read ...until the final 25 pages. I would definitely have given **** with a different ending.
Currently reading The Twelfth Imam trilogy by Joel C. Rosenberg. Half way through the first volume, and thus far it is a very good read, that, while fiction, is drawn right from the headlines coming out of Iran as I type.
My husband saw it when he was working at Lackland AFB in the early 1990s.
I think I’d like that one, too.
Churchill’s History of the English Speaking Peoples (abridged version)
Solomon Slepak survived all the purges, to the utter astonishment of his colleagues, coworkers, everyone. There's no known explanation ... could be some deep, deep secret, or it might have just been random chance.
The book ADAPT. Into a lot of books on marketing, psychology, marketing behavior, tech.
Will read Book #5 of FIRE & ICE (Game of Thrones) series soon. That is my “fun” reading for the summer. Period.
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