[Lobowolf]

dicklont, on Jul 18 2010, 11:36 AM, said:

The last night in twisted river by John Irving.
Very good book, as could be expected from this author.

It contains something about his writing too; he starts the book at the end and works his way back to the start.
Who would have thought that?

Thanks for the recommendation. Irving wrote the best novel I've read - "A Prayer for Owen Meany."

[jjbrr]

I am not an Owen Meany fan at all.

[mikeh]

'The Girl' books....I bought the last in the series in Tokyo....months before it came out in Canada. I really liked Tattoo.....the second one wasn't as good and the third one felt as if he were running out of steam...still worthwhile, but each book was less enjoyable than the first. Oh well, maybe it was the novelty wearing off for me, rather than the quality of the books.

As for my recent reading: I enjoyed The Black Hole Wars by Leonard Susskind. I also enjoyed Snow Falling on Cedars...it's been out for a long time, I think, but I picked it up while travelling and having read everything I had on my Kindle...and was glad I did.

On a less refined note, I began reading the series by Stuart McBride about an Aberdeen police officer.....a lot like Rebus (to whom the author makes occasional homage) but more violent. Not great literature, but good summer reading.

[JoAnneM]

I thought I was going to save money on books when I bought my Kindle, but spending all that time shopping at Amazon has led me to good authors I had never heard of, so I am buying lots more books. I really liked the J P Beaumont detective series by Jance. I have the three Dragon Girl books waiting, my husband has read them - our Kindles are on the same account.

I have also enjoyed reading some of the classics that are free, like Treasure Island, and all the Wizard of Oz books (15, which I am working my way through).

[Phil]

Please read 'The Unwritten Rules of Baseball" by Turbow. Best book I've read in a few years - a lot of depth, interviews, and history.

Reading: "Faster" by James Gleick. Kind of ironic I am reading this 10 years after it was published considering the subject matter LOL.

"Debunking 9/11 Myths" by Popular Mechanics. Now I can go back and read the water cooler threads and understand what thermite is.

"The Golden Ratio - the Story of Phi" - Livio. OK but not what I expected. The writer spends a lot of time proving the the golden ratio ISN'T everwhere you look.

"In Evil Hour" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Yawn, whatever but I've read most of his stuff already.

[blackshoe]

I am currently re-reading The Deed of Paksennarion by Elizabeth Moon. It's about a sheep farmer's daughter who runs away from home to become a soldier, and ends up a Paladin. Pretty good fantasy — Moon was a Marine, and knows what's she's writing about in describing Paks' training and the battles she goes through.

[jjbrr]

I'm starting a Rich Dad trilogy. Really learning a lot (of common sense?)

[Phil]

jjbrr, on Aug 25 2010, 12:13 AM, said:

I'm starting a Rich Dad trilogy. Really learning a lot (of common sense?)

Tony Robbins and Zig Ziegler can't be far behind...

[luke warm]

Phil, on Aug 24 2010, 10:36 PM, said:

"Debunking 9/11 Myths" by Popular Mechanics. Now I can go back and read the water cooler threads and understand what thermite is.

cue winston in 3.... 2.... 1...

[JoAnneM]

I think there should be a law against an author selling his name - like James Patterson. He even admits he only reviews the first drafts, doesn't help write them.

[Elianna]

I recently finished the Girl series. There were several times I was tempted to throw the second book at the wall, and only refrained so that Adam didn't have to repaint.

The math stuff in it REALLY annoyed me.

[kenberg]

Elianna, on Aug 26 2010, 12:07 AM, said:

I recently finished the Girl series. There were several times I was tempted to throw the second book at the wall, and only refrained so that Adam didn't have to repaint.

The math stuff in it REALLY annoyed me.

I found the math stuff charmingly ludicrous. There is this part where her girlfriend, I forget the name right now, talks of how smart the heroine is. Something like "She is up to algebra, doing all sorts of stuff I can't understand". And then she gets shot just as she has found her own proof of Fermat's Last Theorem, but then can't recall it because of the injury to her brain.

I enjoyed all three, but I thought it too bad that the author died shortly after delivering the manuscripts. The publishers probably figured it would be bad karma or something to do any editing after his death. It could seriously have used some. But I just liked the heroine a lot. Some of the far fetched stuff, well, I have seen worse.

PS I do realize that there are other reasons to regret someone's death beyond the fact that it may have short-circuited the editing process.

[kenberg]

My wife, who reads about five books while I read one, is big on The Outlander by Gil Adamson. (This is not Outlander that the movie was made from.)

Adamson is a Canadian author, the story is set in Western Canada and, I think, crossing over some into Montana in 1903. I don't usually piggy-back on Becky's choices but she has mentioned several times how much she likes this one.

[USViking]

The PC has taken my reading down >90% in recent years.

I go months without reading anything other than what is on
the monitor now in front of me.

That is not good, and really does need to change, because
the good old-fashion book has been a giant carrying human beings
on shoulder now for Millennia, and I wish and I hope that goes on
forever and ever, world without end, Amen.

I did just recently finish a real, honest non-paperback, actual book.

The book was a biography of Paul Dirac, whose personal theology,
I learned, entailed that Mother Nature (my term, not Dirac's)
would ensure that human beings, as a species, possess everlasting life
(my theology as well as Dirac's).

I already knew Dirac held out no hope for individual immortality
as envisioned by the Judeo-Christian-Islamic mainstream.

Dirac was such an extreme and outspoken atheist that he incited
another great scientist (Wolfgang Pauli, who did believe in God)
to joke:

There is no God, and Dirac is His Prophet

Dirac may have had the most mathematical ability of any scientist
of the last 100 years (even Feynman said: "I am no Dirac")
and that is saying a hell of a lot.

Dirac's approach was to search for and follow mathematical beauty,
under the assumption that therein lay Truth.

[Gerardo]

kenberg, on Aug 26 2010, 07:12 PM, said:

I found the math stuff charmingly ludicrous. There is this part where her girlfriend, I forget the name right now, talks of how smart the heroine is. Something like "She is up to algebra, doing all sorts of stuff I can't understand". And then she gets shot just as she has found her own proof of Fermat's Last Theorem, but then can't recall it because of the injury to her brain.

Looks like an homage to the original "I have a marvelous proof of this, but the margin is too small"

[Elianna]

Besides the math stuff being annoying, what bothered me was that in the first book, they SHOWED us that the Girl was very smart. She solved problems, she connected dots, etc. The second book TOLD us that the Girl was very smart by TELLING us that she solved a problem (but never showing us that solution, because, well, duh) and having lots of characters tell us that she was smart. But I didn't feel that we were SHOWN that. I mean, I wouldn't have needed to be shown that, because it was from the first book, but the constant telling about how smart she was left me wondering if the author thought that we forgot the first book, or just needed to be hit over the head with that again.

[y66]

Life by Keith Richards. The first person scoop on the legendary career stuff is fascinating, as expected. The real life stuff, and the passion and directness with which Richards tells every story in this book, was something of a surprise for me, including stories like the one he tells about his grandfather Gus who helped nurture his love of music and eventually introduced him to the guitar. The guy can riff in prose too.

[Hanoi5]

Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card. Nice SF novel I'd say.

[gwnn]

 kenberg, on 2010-June-12, 20:15, said:

I just started The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo.

And I just learned that it's a movie! I'm so out of it!

I started it now and I think it's very good writing. no spoilers please!

[kenberg]

I just finished The Postmistress. I recommend it.