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What Are You Reading Right Now?

Re: Part of the rise of the US

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FBI Special Agent Eric O'Neil recounts his top secret assignment to work alongside suspected FBI spy Robert Hanssen and collect enough incriminating information to take him down.
 
Historical fiction, long ago & far away

Death of an eye / Dana Stabenow, c2018, Head of Zeus Ltd., mystery.

Subjects
Cleopatra, -- Queen of Egypt, -- -30 B.C -- Fiction.
Alexandrine War, 48-47 B.C -- Fiction.
Murder -- Investigation -- Fiction.
Alexandria (Egypt) -- History -- Fiction.
Egypt -- History -- 332-30 B.C. -- Fiction.

Summary
Alexandria, 47 BC. Cleopatra shares the throne with her brother Ptolemy under the auspices of Julius Caesar, by whom Cleopatra is heavily pregnant. A shipment of new coins meant to reset the shaky Egyptian economy has been stolen and the Queen's Eye has been murdered, so Queen Cleopatra turns to childhood friend Tetisheri to find the missing shipment and bring the murderer to justice.

Series
An eye of Isis mystery

Length
xv, 254 pages : maps, a list of principal characters

Good light reading. The historical background is complicated, & interesting; & of course Cleopatra is a great character in & of herself. The beginning of a series. "Every man must be tempted, at times, to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats."
 
Re: Historical fiction, long ago & far away

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by Anders Aslund | Yale University Press | 2019 | 336pp

This insightful study explores how the economic system Vladimir Putin has developed in Russia works to consolidate control over the country. By appointing his close associates as heads of state enterprises and by giving control of the FSB and the judiciary to his friends from the KGB (siloviki), he has enriched his business friends from Saint Petersburg with preferential government deals. Thus, Putin has created a super wealthy and loyal plutocracy that owes its existence to authoritarianism.
 
Re: Historical fiction, long ago & far away

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Devil in a Blue Dress, Fearless Jones by Walter Mosley- Hardboiled crime novels with a twist: the detective protagonists are black. Very close to Raymond Chandler and each one has the standard tropes like femme fatales, corrupt and racist cops, and a period setting in L.A. The only major difference is that the protagonist encounters racism and all that, but otherwise it's pretty much like all the other books in the genre. So-so since the plot is run of the mill. 5/10

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L.A. Confidential by James Ellroy- I thought this would be the same as the Mosley books, but Ellroy has a unique writing style- short, staccato sentences with very little exposition or adjectives, using slang as nouns. I loved the movie and this goes in a lot deeper. The research is impeccable and personalities are distinct, a sign of very good writing. I'm only about 15% done but I am enjoying it. 9/10 so far.

Oh, and I am reading these books for research- I got my own idea to write a hardboiled detective novel, so it's all good, man. ;)

Spy Catcher final rating: 8.5/10
 
A brave reporter

Under the wire – Marie Colvin’s final assignment, Paul Conroy, c2013, Weinstein Books

The true story of iconic war correspondent Marie Colvin (called by her peers "the greatest war correspondent of her generation") featured in the forthcoming film A Private War, produced by Charlize Theron and starring Rosamund Pike. Also the basis of the documentary Under the Wire.

Marie Colvin was an internationally recognized American foreign war correspondent who was killed in a rocket attack in 2012 while reporting on the suffering of civilians inside Syria. She was renowned for her iconic flair and her fearlessness: wearing the pearls that were a gift from Yasser Arafat and her black eye-patch, she reported from places so dangerous no other correspondent would dare to go.

319pp, photos, index. – from Amazon.com
 
Re: A brave reporter

Bee season : a novel / Myla Goldberg, c2000, Doubleday.

Subjects
Jewish families -- Fiction.
Jewish girls -- Fiction.
Spelling ability -- Fiction.

Length 275 pages ;

A puzzling novel. Hardly a typical family, but an interesting read. A lot of walking wounded in this one. The discussion (book club) was far reaching, & we didn't reach any definitive conclusions. A good conversation-starter.
 
Re: Part of the rise of the US

"Mass: The quest to understand matter from Greek atoms to quantum fields" (Jim Baggot)

Quite interesting. In short, it appears that mass - what we think off as the "stuff" of solid things - is an emergent behavior of energy (specifically, the energy of various quantum fields) and particles are not particles but fluctuations in those fields. There are plenty of explanations of what's going on in various equations, with even more detailed endnotes (and a lot of them). It's worth trying to puzzle through it all even if you end up giving up on some of them...


Next will be:

"Reality is not what it seems: the journey to quantum gravity" (Carlo Rovelli)

And

"The Order of Time" (Carlo Rovelli).
 
Re: Part of the rise of the US

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The Club Dumas by Arturo Perez-Reverte

I first heard of this book after watching the Polanski movie titled The Ninth Gate, with Johnny Depp. Since I thought the movie was good but ending was weak I decided to track down the source and read it to see if it was better. I dont normally like to read literary novels since a lot of these authors despise independent novelists like myself, but this one grabbed me from the start and wouldnt let go.

It's about a man named Corso, who is a greedy, amoral mercenary in the book world- he finds and trades in ancient and rare books. At the start of the novel, he is tasked to find a old tome written by someone who was burned for witchcraft in the 17th century and it supposedly contains steps to summon the devil. The movie was pretty straightforward with this plot, but the book is a whole lot more and touches on a number of genres, ranging from gothic romance to crime, adventure, and psychological mystery. The characters are fantastic, and the author does an excellent job in conveying their inner feelings. A big subplot involves Alexandre Dumas and his writings, and almost functions a mini-biography of this famous author.

All in all, an excellent book, and highly recommended. 9.5/10
 
Re: Part of the rise of the US

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How Safe Are We?: Homeland Security Since 9/11

Janet Napolitano w/ Karen Breslau | Public Affairs | 2019 | 215pp

Former Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano offers an insightful analysis of American security at home and a prescription for the future.
 
Re: Part of the rise of the US

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The Moscow Rules: The Secret CIA Tactics That Helped America Win the Cold War

by Antonio J. Mendez & Jonna Mendez w/ Matt Baglio | Public Affairs | 2019 | 272pp

How a group of brilliant but under-supported CIA operatives developed breakthrough spy tactics that helped turn the tide of the Cold War.
 
Re: Part of the rise of the US

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The Enemy of the People: A Dangerous Time to Tell the Truth in America

Jim Acosta | HarperCollins | 2019 | 368pp

From CNN’s veteran Chief White House Correspondent Jim Acosta, an explosive, first-hand account of the dangers he faces reporting on the current White House while fighting on the front lines in President Trump’s war on truth.
 
Re: Part of the rise of the US

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How Safe Are We? Homeland Security Since 9/11

Janet Napolitano w/Karen Breslau | PublicAffairs | 2019 | 215pp

Former Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano offers an insightful analysis of American security at home and a prescription for the future.
 
Re: Part of the rise of the US

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Armor by John Steakley- Did not finish. What started out as a sort of Starship Troopers clone rapidly devolved into another story, about a space pirate. The plot is kind of hard to follow and slow moving too. but in the end, the writing was not so good- lots of repetition and stuff. I mean, its not as bad as my work, but still, I just couldn't finish it. Rating: DNF


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Ilium by Dan Simmons- I sort of liked the Hyperion Cantos series, so I gave this one a try. The problem is that its a long book, and ends with a cliffhanger, which I thoroughly hate. The story is convoluted, with AI robots trying to deliver something to Mars, then you've got dimension traveling humans who seem to be busy watching a reenactment of the Trojan War, complete with beings who seem to resemble the ancient Greek gods. All in all, I dont like the cliffhanger bit at all, and so I'm gonna bow out of the rest of the series. Rating: 5/10
 
Collected Tales by Chaucer, alternating with the 3rd volume collected stories by Phillip K. Dick, and The Pimp Who Ate Pumpernickel, a tale of lost love regained during pre WWI days Atlantic City, a true story told by Alice Urilla Toklas, no relation to Alice B. Toklas, but one of Hemingway's endless stream of mistresses during the 1930's, written in 1948 and a best seller in its day. A humorous telling of a long forgotten NJ political scandal. Alice was the granddaughter of the youngest sister of Wyatt Earp's first wife who died of typhoid, also named Urilla. Picked up this copy at a tag sale for 25¢. Alice later remarried Alan Nesbitt, he, she and their daughter Alice, went on to write many children's books and stories, becoming best selling children's authors for many years under their own names and a variety of pseudonyms.
 
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The Uninhabitable Earth: Life After Warming

David Wallace-Wells | Tim Dugan Books | 2019 | 310pp

Like An Inconvenient Truth and Silent Spring before it, The Uninhabitable Earth is both a meditation on the devastation we have brought upon ourselves and an impassioned call to action.
 
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Fortunate Son: My Life, My Music

John Fogerty | Little, Brown and Company | 2015 | 406pp

Fogerty chronicles the brief but brilliant success of his band, Creedence Clearwater Revival, and its tragic collapse.
 
Last call?

The future of humanity : terraforming Mars, interstellar travel, immortality, and our destiny beyond Earth / Dr. Michio Kaku, c2018, Doubleday, 629.455 KAKU.

Subjects
• Astrophysics.
• Interplanetary voyages.
• Astronautics -- Forecasting.
• Space colonies.
• Outer space -- Exploration.

Notes
• Introduction: Toward a multiplanet species -- Part I: Leaving the Earth -- Preparing for liftoff -- New golden age of space travel -- Mining the heavens -- Mars or bust -- Mars: the garden planet -- Gas giants, comets, and beyond -- Part II: Voyage to the stars -- Robots in space -- Building a starship -- Kepler and a universe of planets -- Part III: Life in the universe -- Immortality -- Transhumanism and technology -- Search for extraterrestrial life -- Advanced civilizations -- Leaving the universe.

Length
• xx, 339 pages : photos, illustrations, chapter notes, suggested reading, index

A guide to various possible technological futures for man in the universe. Very interesting reading.
 
The sheep look up?

Robot uprisings / edited by Daniel H. Wilson and John Joseph Adams, c2014, Vintage Books, SF ROBO.

Subjects
Science fiction, American.
Robots -- Fiction.

Summary
"As real robots creep into our lives, so does a sense of fear--we have all wondered what horrifying scenarious might unfold if our technology were to go awry. This anthology brings to life the half-formed questions and fears we all have about the machines we live with. With contributions by Alan Dean Foster, Charles Yu, Hugh Howey, Daniel H. Wilson, Corey Doctorow, Ian McDonald, Ernie Cline, Jeff Abbott, Robin Wasserman, and Anna North, Robot Uprisings contains meticulously described, exhilarating trips to futures in which humans can only survive by being more clever and tenacious than the rebellious machines they have unwittingly created"-- Provided by publisher.

Length
xviii, 476 pages ; brief intro to each author

Pleasant reading, up & coming authors, & some old hands.
 
Re: Part of the rise of the US

PoS said:
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Armor by John Steakley- Did not finish. What started out as a sort of Starship Troopers clone rapidly devolved into another story, about a space pirate. The plot is kind of hard to follow and slow moving too. but in the end, the writing was not so good- lots of repetition and stuff. I mean, its not as bad as my work, but still, I just couldn't finish it. Rating: DNF
Click to expand...

Of the two John Steakley books, I much preffered Vampire$, a book about a secret Vatican funded group of Vampire hunters. I read Armour second, and found it weird that he reused many of the character names. Anyway, I really liked Vampire$.


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Ilium by Dan Simmons- I sort of liked the Hyperion Cantos series, so I gave this one a try. The problem is that its a long book, and ends with a cliffhanger, which I thoroughly hate. The story is convoluted, with AI robots trying to deliver something to Mars, then you've got dimension traveling humans who seem to be busy watching a reenactment of the Trojan War, complete with beings who seem to resemble the ancient Greek gods. All in all, I dont like the cliffhanger bit at all, and so I'm gonna bow out of the rest of the series. Rating: 5/10
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This is one of my favorite authors, and favorite series. How dare you! ;)

Anyway, I loved this two book series and found it a cool way to teach the Illiad and the Odyssey. Dan Simmons was a highschool English teacher in his previous career. His first novel "Song of Kali" is a great psychological thriller, and his "Hyperion" series is one of the best SF series ever written. Hyperion if also a cliffhanger series though, so...
 
Re: Part of the rise of the US

In PoS format...

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The Killer Angels - A criminally under-appreciated book during the lifetime of the author, even after being awarded a Pulitzer Prize for Historical fiction. Shaara's novel on the battle of Gettysburg is a masterpiece of research and prose, deriving his characterizations from the correspondence and writing of the key players in the war, in their correspondence during and after the war. The book was likely panned in large part because the final judgement was not kind to Robert E. Lee, depicting him as a man largely out of his element, whose miraculous success up to Gettysburg was arguably driven largely by the incompetency of the Union generals. By the time the Confederates arrived in Gettysburg they were all but served victory on a platter, but a miraculous stand by Union forward cavalry lead by General Bufford, held off 20,000 union troops with only 2,500 unmounted cavalry... a failure that would haunt the Confederates the rest of the battle.

Anyway, a fantastic book that was made into a mediocre movie. The film was awkward because so much of the book was internal dialogue by the key players, brought nearly verbatim to the screen as spoken language by the person, or someone else. It makes the language so much less in the movie, but the film does at least accurately portray Shaara's interpretation of the events of Gettysburg. 10/10
 
Re: Part of the rise of the US

And, of course, I meant "held off 20,000 Confederate troops"....
 
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Probably the 4 best Literary Journals out there.

Though that’s the final issue of Tin House.

Good run.

There’s a couple others I subscribe to but these have always been favs.
 
A history and overview of the sumo sport.

It was written 30 years ago, but very helpful.
 
Re: Part of the rise of the US

jmotivator said:
Of the two John Steakley books, I much preffered Vampire$, a book about a secret Vatican funded group of Vampire hunters. I read Armour second, and found it weird that he reused many of the character names. Anyway, I really liked Vampire$.




This is one of my favorite authors, and favorite series. How dare you! ;)

Anyway, I loved this two book series and found it a cool way to teach the Illiad and the Odyssey. Dan Simmons was a highschool English teacher in his previous career. His first novel "Song of Kali" is a great psychological thriller, and his "Hyperion" series is one of the best SF series ever written. Hyperion if also a cliffhanger series though, so...
Click to expand...

I havent gotten a copy of Vampire$ yet, but if its anything like Armor, I probably wont. :2razz:

As far as Dan Simmons goes- The first two Hyperion books were actually written as a single novel, and it was the publisher that split them in two, so I cant really fault him for that.

Ilium on the other hand- that book doesnt reveal anything- it just feels like a big setup for the next book, which to me is just silly. No questions are answered, and nothing is resolved. I didnt like the characters either. So double meh.
 
Re: Part of the rise of the US

Robert Wilson's A Small Death in Lisbon.
 
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