| Book recommendations thread 18:01 - Mar 23 with 1515 views | ThisIsMyUsername |
Day 1 of my own social lockdown and I'm desperately bored already. Hopefully we can gather some ideas for myself and others.
I'll kick off with the last 5 I've read, to give an idea of what I like:
The House by the Lake (Harding)
Alone in Berlin (Fallada)
Endurance (Lansing)
Travellers in the Third Reich (Boyd)
The Alchemist (Coelho) [Post edited 23 Mar 2020 18:02]
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| Book recommendations thread on 18:13 - Mar 23 with 1466 views | sparks |
We dont appear to overlap in interests or tastes particularly.
However, my last five (including current)- with asterisks denoting ones I particularly enjoyed:
Light Brigade- Kameron Hurley
Lady in the Lake - Raymond Chandler (3rd read)*
Bone Silence- Alastair Reynolds*
Last Unicorn- Peter Beagle
The Grand Dark - Richard Kadrey * |  |
| The presence of those seeking the truth is infinitely to be preferred to the presence of those who think they've found it.
(Sir Terry Pratchett) | | Poll: | Is Fred drunk this morning? |
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| Book recommendations thread on 20:17 - Mar 23 with 1372 views | factual_blue |
I've just finished The End by Sir Ian Kershaw. It's about how the Nazi regime kept going in the last eight or nine months of the war, primarily on terror; either terror from the regime or terror in terms of fear of the Soviets. The behaviour of the nazis towards their own people was appalling.
One astonishing fact. In the period from July 1944 to May 1945 the German armed forces suffered as many casualties as in the four or so years before that.
I'm also reading the Mirror and the Light, and Sapiens. |  |
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| Book recommendations thread on 20:23 - Mar 23 with 1359 views | ThisIsMyUsername |
| Book recommendations thread on 20:17 - Mar 23 by factual_blue |
I've just finished The End by Sir Ian Kershaw. It's about how the Nazi regime kept going in the last eight or nine months of the war, primarily on terror; either terror from the regime or terror in terms of fear of the Soviets. The behaviour of the nazis towards their own people was appalling.
One astonishing fact. In the period from July 1944 to May 1945 the German armed forces suffered as many casualties as in the four or so years before that.
I'm also reading the Mirror and the Light, and Sapiens. |
Just searched The Mirror and the Light. It's part of that trilogy, isn't it? I'd looked at them before.
Also, Sapiens is a brilliant book. If you're thinking about reading the follow-up Homo Deus, don't bother. It's 80% the same book as Sapiens with a little bit about the future on the end. | |
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| Book recommendations thread on 20:47 - Mar 23 with 1335 views | Plums |
| Book recommendations thread on 20:17 - Mar 23 by factual_blue |
I've just finished The End by Sir Ian Kershaw. It's about how the Nazi regime kept going in the last eight or nine months of the war, primarily on terror; either terror from the regime or terror in terms of fear of the Soviets. The behaviour of the nazis towards their own people was appalling.
One astonishing fact. In the period from July 1944 to May 1945 the German armed forces suffered as many casualties as in the four or so years before that.
I'm also reading the Mirror and the Light, and Sapiens. |
I’m reading Antony Beevor’s Berlin. It really was a horrific period with the Nazis and Soviets outdoing each other in terms of brutality. I’ll look up The End when I’ve finished. |  |
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| Book recommendations thread on 20:48 - Mar 23 with 1336 views | Steve_M |
Just a few I've read recently. All factual but all very readable.
- In Extremis. Lindsey Hilsum's biography of Marie Colvin. A remarkable, if flawed life for a greater good.
- Pale Rider. Laura Spinney on the Spanish Flu epidemic of 1918. I re-read this a few weeks back, it's fascinating for its own sake but particularly timely now.
- This is not Propaganda. Peter Pomerarantsev on fake news, reality and disinformation.
- The Fifth Risk. Michael Lewis on the little-known, little-loved parts of the US government that are falling apart by neglect. Also rather timely. |  |
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| Book recommendations thread on 20:50 - Mar 23 with 1328 views | Steve_M |
| Book recommendations thread on 20:47 - Mar 23 by Plums |
I’m reading Antony Beevor’s Berlin. It really was a horrific period with the Nazis and Soviets outdoing each other in terms of brutality. I’ll look up The End when I’ve finished. |
Very different books, Kershaw's more of a historical analysis but they will complement each other well.
Beevor on Arnhem is excellent too, best thing he's written since the first two books. The failure was designed into the whole operation by incompetent senior commanders despite the heroism of the soldiers and airmen b | |
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| Apologies to some for this... on 20:53 - Mar 23 with 1322 views | Dyland |
"The Coming Plague: Newly Emerging Diseases in a World Out of Balance" by Laurie Garratt. Read it about fifteen years ago and it's brilliant. Some reviews -
"A frightening vision of the future and a deeply unsettling one...a sober, scary book that not only limns the dangers posed by emerging diseases but also raises serious questions about two centuries worth of Enlightenment beliefs in science and technology and progress." --Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times
"Like her role model Rachel Carson, whose 1962 Silent Spring woke up society to environmental poisoning, Garrett aims to dispel social and political complacency about the threat of old, new, and yet-unknown microbial catastrophes in a golbal ecology that links Bujumbura, Bangkok, and Boston more closely than anyone appreciates." Richard A. Knox, The Boston Globe
"Garrett has done a brilliant job of putting scientific work into layman's language, and the scariness of medical melodramas is offset by the excitement of scientific detection." --The New Yorker
"The book is ambitious, but it succeeds...[its] scope is encyclopedic, its mass of detail startling." --The Economist
"Garrett brilliantly develops her theme that repidly increasing dangers are being ignored. Her investigations have taken over a decade to complete, and her findings are meticulously discussed and distilled." -- Richard Horton, The New York Review of Books
"Encyclopedic in detail, missionary in zeal, and disturbing in its message...The Coming Plague makes fascinating if troubling reading. It is an important contribution to our awareness of human ecology and the fragility of the relative biological well-being that many of us enjoy. Garrett has mastered an extraordinary amount of detail about the pathology, epidemiology, and human events surrounding dozens of complex diseases. She writes engagingly, carrying her themes as well as the reader's interest from outbreak to outbreak. --The Los Angeles Times Book Review
"Absorbing...the insights into the personalities and the stories behind new infectious diseases are fascinating. I have the greatest admiration for Laurie Garrett." --Abraham Verghese, M.D., author of In the Heartland: A Doctor's Story of a Town and Its People in the Age of AIDS
"A masterpiece of reporting and writing, The Coming Plague is the best and most thorough book on the terrifying emergence of new plagues. The level of detail is amazing, with fascinating portraits of the so-called 'disease cowboys, ' the doctors and scientists who fight infectious diseases on the front lines. The Coming Plague is a must read for anyone interested in the biological fate of the human species." --Richard Preston, New York Times-bestselling author of The Hot Zone |  |
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| Book recommendations thread on 20:54 - Mar 23 with 1322 views | Plums |
| Book recommendations thread on 20:50 - Mar 23 by Steve_M |
Very different books, Kershaw's more of a historical analysis but they will complement each other well.
Beevor on Arnhem is excellent too, best thing he's written since the first two books. The failure was designed into the whole operation by incompetent senior commanders despite the heroism of the soldiers and airmen b |
Yes, I read Arnhem last year, a real eye opener. Stalingrad was a fascinating read too, really makes me want to visit and see the place for myself. | |
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| Book recommendations thread on 21:01 - Mar 23 with 1309 views | Ewan_Oozami |
All excellent books!
May I recommend:
Flea: Acid for the Children - the first part of Flea's autobiography - just shows the fine line that exists between prison and death and fame and fortune.
Eugene Rogan: The Arabs: A History - peopel still don't quite get how an awful lot of the problems in the Middle East were created by the West.
Paul Lay: Providence Lost - The story of Cromwell's Protectorate
Mary Beard: SPQR - excellent social history of the first half of the Roman Republic and Empire |  |
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| Book recommendations thread on 21:03 - Mar 23 with 1303 views | Dubtractor |
| Book recommendations thread on 18:13 - Mar 23 by sparks |
We dont appear to overlap in interests or tastes particularly.
However, my last five (including current)- with asterisks denoting ones I particularly enjoyed:
Light Brigade- Kameron Hurley
Lady in the Lake - Raymond Chandler (3rd read)*
Bone Silence- Alastair Reynolds*
Last Unicorn- Peter Beagle
The Grand Dark - Richard Kadrey * |
I like a lot of Alastair Reynolds stuff.
On the Sci Fi note I'd recommend Semiosis and the sequel Interference by Sue Burke.
I'd also massively recommend this...
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/jun/15/borne-by-jeff-vandermeer-review |  |
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| Book recommendations thread on 22:21 - Mar 23 with 1255 views | BloomBlue |
Not sure about the last 5 but I'm currently reading Station Eleven by Emily St John Mandel, probably not the best choice given it's set in the aftermath of a swine flu pandemic, which hurls humanity back to a pre-industrial time. |  | | |
| Book recommendations thread on 22:30 - Mar 23 with 1246 views | sparks |
Reynolds is great.
I neglected to include Thin Air by Richard Morgan which is good fun too. Somewhere between the Chandler, the Reynolds, and something extraordinarily violent and adult. | |
| The presence of those seeking the truth is infinitely to be preferred to the presence of those who think they've found it.
(Sir Terry Pratchett) | | Poll: | Is Fred drunk this morning? |
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| Book recommendations thread on 22:39 - Mar 23 with 1237 views | WeWereZombies |
In The Forest - Edna O'Brien
Autobiography of Bertrand Russell Volume Two 1914-1944
[edit] for some reason, perhaps because I had already posted the recommendation in its own thread, I forgot the very enjoyable 'Hezbollah Hiking Club' - Dom Joly
The Way Of Zen - Alan Watts
Moshi Moshi - Banana Yoshimoto
The Overnight Kidnapper - Andrea Camilleri [Post edited 24 Mar 2020 5:47]
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| Book recommendations thread on 22:59 - Mar 23 with 1219 views | Nthsuffolkblue |
Currently enjoying "Periodic Tales".
Recommend "The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists".
Recently enjoyed "Gone with the Wind" which I didn't expect to. |  |
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| Book recommendations thread on 23:07 - Mar 23 with 1211 views | TheTrueBlue1878 |
We don’t seem to have similar interests in books.
Intelligent Investor - Benjamin Graham.
By far the greatest investment book I have ever read. |  |
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