What Books Are You Reading Right Now?

"The Gene," by Siddhartha Mukherjee. A look at genetics for the layman. Outstanding job making a difficult subject readily accessible to a non academic.
 
Piso Mojado said:
When I worked for the U.S. Post Office (not the USPS), all the letter carriers and clerks had read Charles Bukowski's Post Office. There was a dog eared copy that passed from hand to hand. People started reading that and then bought their own copy. In those days, carriers started at $2.95/hour and my colleagues didn't have a lot of free cash for books. The stuff about the author's love life is funny (to me) and most likely fantasy (my guess based on photographs). The stuff about his alcoholism is semi-realistic, and that is pretty good for an alcoholic who is drinking. The stuff about working in the Post Office is very funny and very realistic. Even the Dickensian names (Stone the Supervisor) are realistic. A classic labor book. It is hard to find books like this, and even harder to find books like this which are funny.
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I heartily recommend Orwell's "Down and Out in London and Paris" if you're looking for another read. Not nearly as edgy as Bukowski's stuff, but a whole order of magnitude more percipient and articulate.

Two on deck for me these days.
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BennyBlade said:
Currently I'm 400 pages into the Douay version of the Old Testament... I've never read a the Bible cover to cover before. Only abbreviated additions. Spent many Sundays in church though, so it's kind of like hearing a song you used to know a long time ago. I have 1086 pages in this OT, which ends with machabees, and then 297 pages to the Apocalypse.
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This is the best book about the Bible I have ever read:
www.biblicalarchaeology.org

The Bible With and Without Jesus

The title of this blogpost is also the title of the book we recently coauthored. The Bible With and Without Jesus (HarperOne 2020) asks how
www.biblicalarchaeology.org www.biblicalarchaeology.org
 
Just finished "Talking to the Gound" by Doug Preston. You might know Preston for his collaboration with Lincoln Child, the Prendergast series. This was written in 1992 after he, his fiancée and her daughter traverse the Navajo reservation on horseback. I'm a sucker for stories like this, he intersperses with Navajo tales of their history. The Navajo have unique outlook, their religion tells a bleak tale of the future, some that we're now living.
 
If you like Sci Fi...
The Expanse series is the BEST I have ever read. Every book is great ! Even the short story one. In fact it may be the best book of all.
And blows the Amazon tv series away with multiple,
Photon Torpedoes !
 
I read — a lot. I have read most of classical science fiction and a great deal of classical mythology. I own around 2000 science fiction books.


This concerns one bought at leasure yet — as I was reading it several paths in my life were drawn into it.

In 1956 I was flown with my mother to Japan as dad was in the service.

Around 1961 in a small town in Oregon I began buying dime-store pocket knives because what boy wouldn’t.

In 1977-ish I started buying kitchen knives as a professional cook

In 1980 I returned to Japan for a spin as English Teacher to any who could afford it.

I know about a wide range of things but what I know most about is human spirit -and- Science Fiction.

I weld. I wire. I lap valves. I excavate. I cast concrete. I erect houses. I moved oil rigs. I cook. I sew. I restore leather. I paint. I light stages. I operate sound studios. I remaster old music, I still speak a *little* German & Japanese and a smattering of other old world languages. . . I cut my finger on my first knife about 10 minutes after one grandfather gave it to me in 1959.

And I am a really big reader which "could" separate me from this broader community of edgy dudes — but You might be a reader…

I wish to commend for your consideration a book entitled, Forged In Blood — compiled and edited by Michael Z. Williamson. A collection from a passel of contributing authors you probably don’t know.

Battle guys would like it. Science fiction guys might like it. Japanophiles could like it.


But tool, knife, and blade guys will love it!

Only the best to you...
 
FOG2 said:
If you like Sci Fi...
The Expanse series is the BEST I have ever read. Every book is great ! Even the short story one. In fact it may be the best book of all.
And blows the Amazon tv series away with multiple,
Photon Torpedoes !
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Well -- with one exception, all the movie interpretations of the SciFi books I have encountered are unsatisfactory or outright suck -- that being Andromeda Strain which was a gripping book and a brilliant movie. But I am a critic who has yet to write his first book -- so what do I know.
 
Just finished "American Rascal" by Greg Steinmetz and "When McKinsey Comes to Town" by Walt Bogdanich and Michael Forsythe. "Rascal" is a fun look at Jay Gould; "McKinsey" is a rather sour look at the consulting firm.

Now it's on to some fiction. Reading both "The Passenger" by Cormac McCarthy and "Rainbow Six" by Tom Clancy now. Each is different as can be from the other. I may or may not connect with McCarthy's latest, but I know the late Mr. Clancy will deliver some great adventures.
 
Just finished My Name is Asher Lev. About to start reading Gilead by Marilynn Robinson. I'm also slowly working my way through An Offering of Uncles by Robert Farrar Capon.
 
JTB_5 said:
Just finished My Name is Asher Lev. About to start reading Gilead by Marilynn Robinson. I'm also slowly working my way through An Offering of Uncles by Robert Farrar Capon.
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Chaim Potok's books are always an engaging read. Have you read his other works?
 
Finished two novels of recent vintage. First was "The Maze" by Nelson Demille. This was another in the John Corey series, I was not overwhelmed by it. Seemed way too long and too predictable. Of course, I'll probably read the next installment.

Second was "Treasure State" by CJ Box. I really enjoy the Joe Pickett books and this series featuring a female is pretty good. This was a really easy read and totally entertaining.
 
Rereading Jack Reacher novels now, I just finished "Killing Floor" what a book !
 
HarryT said:
Well -- with one exception, all the movie interpretations of the SciFi books I have encountered are unsatisfactory or outright suck -- that being Andromeda Strain which was a gripping book and a brilliant movie. But I am a critic who has yet to write his first book -- so what do I know.
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You should watch Arrival, IMO the best sci-fi movie in 50 years. From a short story you probably never heard of.
 
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