dsc
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Posts: 759
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Post by dsc on Apr 21, 2020 20:38:02 GMT -8
Here's my list
The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History
It was a good read. I felt the author dwelled a little too much on the lives of the medical heroic scientists who worked around the clock in search of solutions, but overall it was very informative. The history in American medicine was interesting. Didn't know that we lagged behind the world until the late 1800's. Medical schools accepted people just with high school degrees until the founders of Johns Hopkins reformed the system.
A Study in Scarlet (Sherlock Holmes#1) & The Sign of Four (Sherlock Holmes#2)
Recently picked up the whole Holmes collection. Gotta love free Kindle books. I read some of Holmes stories in Korean as a kid and absolutely loved them. It took me 40+ years now to come full circle and finally to get around to read them in the original language. Although separated by distance, language and culture from the author in many ways (ie "he ejaculated"), I love that I can pick up on some of the humor in his prose.
One language difference I picked up on: How numbers were expressed in English: "she must be seven-and-twenty." (regarding Miss Morstan).
I plan on finishing out the collection.
Ireland by Frank Delaney
What a delightful read! It starts out with a storyteller who tells old tales about Irish kings and saints and leaves an indelible impression on a young boy. So far, I learned a few new things about Newgrange and Saint Patrick. Has anyone been to Newgrange? I am only 20% in.
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DrJ
Contributing Member
Posts: 188
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Post by DrJ on Apr 21, 2020 21:23:03 GMT -8
I picked up most of the Sherlock Holmes stories on Kindle a few years ago when I was traveling a lot. Good for trips.
Lately I've read "All the Light We Cannot See" by Anthony Doerr. Absolutely fantastic book. The start is a little slow but it picks up and is a great story and beautifully written. Maybe the best novel I've read in 10+ years. Recommend it to anyone.
Also read "My Year of Rest and Relaxation" by Otessa Moshfegh. This is a story about a depressed New Yorker who tries to spend a year sleeping after finding a shrink who writes her all kinds of prescriptions. I wouldn't say this is a great novel but I have to say it grew on me a little as the stay home order went on. End of the book picked up a bit. If you've never spent time in NYC it would make no sense at all. Did enjoy references to old clubs like Tunnel.
"Tales of the Dying Earth" by Jack Vance. Vance was a terrific writer of SciFi and fantasy. This is a compendium of his pulp short stories published as "The Dying Earth" and 3 novels set in the same world. Vance's characters are flawed and complex. They are conniving and untrustworthy and every agreement is rife with loopholes as characters haggle incessantly. Cugel the Clever is the anti-hero in two of the novels.
Now I am reading "The Guns at Last Light" by Rick Atkinson, the last volume of his Liberation Trilogy about the US Army in Africa and Europe in WW2. All good reads.
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Post by andyh64000 on Apr 21, 2020 21:23:32 GMT -8
The Ragged Edge of Night - Historical Fiction about a former Monk who answers an add to marry a widow in Nazi Germany (Bavaria). The Things We Cannot Say - Historical Fiction about a grandmother in present day (relatively) dying in a hospital and her younger self during the Nazi Occupation of Poland. Rules Of Civility - Amor Towles (of Gentleman In Moscow) Historical Fiction. The google description is perfect so I will just use that: "A sophisticated and entertaining debut novel about an irresistible young woman with an uncommon sense of purpose. Set in New York City in 1938, Rules of Civility tells the story of a watershed year in the life of an uncompromising twenty-five-year- old named Katey Kontent" I am now reading The Play Of Death which is part of a historical fiction series by Oliver Potzsch (who I believe writes the original in German) about a Hangman and his family in 17th Century Bavaria I would recommend them all  My next 3 books will be the WW2 historical fiction trilogy by Jeff Shaara. His historical fiction is more history than fiction (his Revolutionary war books were great). |
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DrJ
Contributing Member
Posts: 188
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Post by DrJ on Apr 21, 2020 21:26:16 GMT -8
Loved A Gentlemen in Moscow.
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Post by Born2BBruin on Apr 21, 2020 21:28:22 GMT -8
Agent Running in the Field by John le Carre
I'm not saying this is B-minus le Carre, but even B-minus le Carre is better than most writer's A-plus work. A really nice spy novel set in Brexit Britain.
The Search for Modern China by Jonathan D. Spence
I haven't actually started this yet but it's next on my list; a single volume history. It's big, like the country, but my bank does lots of business in China, so the more I understand, the better off I'll be.
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Post by andyh64000 on Apr 21, 2020 21:29:30 GMT -8
Loved A Gentlemen in Moscow. I did as well (so did my wife, son, and youngest daughter). It is just so well written. I also never usually say this but I think I enjoyed the audible version more than the print version. The voice actor was spectacular. If you have only read you should listen to it as well. I liked Rules Of Civility but it is a completely different type of book but still extremely well written and a great story. |
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dsc
Resident Member
Posts: 759
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Post by dsc on Apr 21, 2020 21:38:46 GMT -8
The Search for Modern China by Jonathan D. Spence I haven't actually started this yet but it's next on my list; a single volume history. It's big, like the country, but my bank does lots of business in China, so the more I understand, the better off I'll be. How much have you read up on the history of China? I wouldn't know where to begin. It seems so intimidating. I have Stilwell and the American Experience in China by Barbara Tuchman on Kindle. I don't know when I will get to it though. |
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DrJ
Contributing Member
Posts: 188
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Post by DrJ on Apr 21, 2020 21:46:18 GMT -8
I hadn't read much literature about the Russian Revolution (mostly political theory and science) so there was a lot of detail in "Gentleman" that was fascinating. Very rich and vivid in his descriptions of life,in the New Russia.
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Post by bruingray on Apr 21, 2020 22:17:36 GMT -8
Had long had Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov on my list. Finished it Easter Sunday, two days after I finished the Old Testament in the Greek Orthodox sttudy Bible. Found both to be superb. I have been reading a lot of theology these past few months as a very recent convert to Greek Orthodoxy. I have found it vastly rewarding, intellectually as well as spiritually. My secular reading list is verrrrry long. But my days are pretty busy and tiring, and my evenings dedicated to my wife and oldest daughter, so my reading tends to be very late at night, kind of like this post.
Happy for another safe harbor, civilized forum again.
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Post by grant73 on Apr 21, 2020 23:43:20 GMT -8
Paulette Giles -- not one but three books, best was News of the World
(I have a lady friend from my life 40 years ago, she "recommended" the author. "Yes, Ma'am!")
Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand (of Seabiscuit) Louie Zamperini's Japanese POW story (great book, about a Trojan, though)
Now starting Diane Setterfield's Once upon a River
I am thinking of re-reading the Tony Hillerman series of Four Corners novels, in order this time (read them 20 years ago)
I also have a few inflight-type thrillers by Nelson Demille --he's actually pretty entertaining. Try Plum Island, Lion's Game, Night Fall; he is pretty sarcastic-funny for a thriller writer.
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Post by TAMPATIDE on Apr 22, 2020 3:17:44 GMT -8
DSC, I remember my grandmother telling me about the Spanish Influenza, she said she was going to several funerals every month.
Born, I just started the LeCarre book and you are right, at his worst he blows away almost every other author.
I am also currently reading a bio on Barbara Stanwyck, forget the author but I am fascinated by movies of the 1930's and Barbara and Joan Blondel are 2 of my favorites from that era.
Just received a wonderful book on railroad poster history, good grief, some of that poster material was gorgeous. A lot of good narrative with info I wasn't aware of. For you Cali guys, the Santa Fe and Southern Pacific were probably the 2 greatest innovators in this genre and were responsible for drawing thousands of tourists to the west coast from the turn of the century through the 1950's. The Super Chief and NY Central's 20th Century Limited were the 2 most well known trains in their time with the Super Chief being the preferred travel choice for Hollywood stars traveling to the east coast.
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Post by TAMPATIDE on Apr 22, 2020 3:22:35 GMT -8
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Post by Born2BBruin on Apr 22, 2020 8:27:41 GMT -8
Wow, that IS beautiful! But for $5 grand, I'd rather buy a new guitar. Then again, the boss would get mad, and a poster takes up less space hanging on a wall. |
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DrJ
Contributing Member
Posts: 188
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Post by DrJ on Apr 22, 2020 8:46:03 GMT -8
B2B:
Read quite a bit on China over the years foreign policy seminars in school:
Tuchman is a good starting point.
Tang Tsou’s “America’s Failure in China, 1941-50” was sort of a guidepost at the time. It is a study of how the Nationalist regime failed due to its own internal corruption and contradictions and how American perceptions of China were molded by powerful interests in the US. “Rule or Ruin” has familiar r ring these days.
Also read a good number of books written by the old China hands who were labeled commie sympathizers and sacked for reporting accurately on Chiang’s failures and the communists ascenscion to power. Edgar Snow, Owen Lattimore, John Service. The fact that they were correct in their predictions just made them more hated by the Right. Some things never change... there was a portion of “Best and Brightest” which discusses this purge of Asia experts from State and how that loss of expertise contributed to the debacle of Vietnam.
Red Fanshen years ago - about the transition of power in a rural Chinese village.
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Post by mhbruin on Apr 22, 2020 10:01:34 GMT -8
The Woman who Smashed the Codes.
It's about Elizebeth Friedman, half of a husband and wife team who basically created modern code-breaking. She figured out a couple of version of the Enigma machine with paper and pencil.
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