Has anyone here read a good book recently?

[Techboy]

Anything by John D Macdonald, the Travis Magee series is particularly good.

[RetiredDoc]

Anything by John D Macdonald, the Travis Magee series is particularly good.

Thanks for all the suggestions, guys.

I spent my teens and early adulthood waiting for the next John D. McDonald book to be published. When re-read today, they are a bit dated, but in a good way.

Sort of like reading the Nero Wolfe novels again.

[JW in VaBeach]

What is the What by Dave Eggers

[Crazy_Canuck]

Theory of Machines and Mechanisms 4th edition

Unicker, Pennock and Shigley

Guaranteed to frustrate you and put you to sleep!

[option00002]

"The Secret Life of Lobsters: How Fishermen and Scientists Are Unraveling the Mysteries of Our Favorite Crustacean" by Trevor Corson

[rlomba8204]

The Foolish Tortoise by Richard Buckley.

Katy and the Big Snow by Virginia Lee Burton

King Cat by Tracy Gallup.

[saigon535]

Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond.

[Mark in Toronto]

Stalingrad: The Fateful Siege, 1942 - 1943 by Antony Beevor

[Cooperman]

Just finished these two:

Blazing the Trail: The Early History of Spacecraft and Rocketry by Mike Gruntman

The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway (for the 5th time)

[MicahO]

Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond.

Outstanding book! Diamond's "Collapse" is also a good read, chock full of interesting data, though lacks the delivery and punch of "Guns..."

Dennis Lehane - "A Given Day" fictional account of the 1919 Boston Police Riots. Great book.

Michael Lewis - "The Big Short" Great book (struck a bit too close to home for me!). His "Liar's Poker" is also great. He wrote Liar's thinking that Wall Street's fat-cat days were ending, and it seems like "Short" is carrying the same message, 20 years later. Sooner or later it will actually happen. Read them both.

Along your Military history vein (and things you may already have read), Nathaniel Philbrick's "Mayflower" was a good read. Lessons we never learned, that go back WAY before the nation was founded or populated. Flexner's "The Indispensable Man" is a fabulous look at some of Washington's life before the revolution, and the way that life affected our identity as a nation is incredible.

Malcom Gladwell's "Outliers" is eye opening, and "Blink" is quite good.

If you've got long drives in front of you, Jim Dale's audio books of the Harry Potter series are really fabulous. The books are fun, and Jim Dale is masterful. They really are perfect brain-dead listening behind the wheel (I commute 100+ miles per day and drive to FLA at least 2x per year, so there's a lot of that time available to me )

And as I descend into the taste cellar.....In the "historical-fiction-bodice-ripper" category, wifey has had me reading Diana Galbadon's "Outlander" books. They are a pretty interesting look at a woman that travels back in time to 1740's Scotland and gets wrapped up in life there. Lots of interesting history gets woven into the fiction. We read the books pretty much in-time with each other, and then during road trips relay the stories (minus the many many sex scenes) to the kids, who are fascinated by details of life in the 18th century, and the story of the characters.

(No, we don't let them listen to ipods and play video games on the road trips. They watch a movie or two, and mostly have to talk to their parents. Nightmare!)

[a]

another big fan of audiobooks. . A good narrator can add another dimension to a book. Philbricks Mayflower is all about Benjamin Church . Church is 10th generation ancestor of mine. Lehane is a good read. I get off on his locations around Boston. Steven King's stuff makes a good listen.

[MicahO]

Thread resurrection - I've got a bit of a road trip coming up, along with some time on airplanes to kill, so I'm wondering what's on the collective Summer Reading List.

So far this summer, when I've fallen into bed not already asleep, I've been able to get a few chapters of "The Art of Racing in the Rain." I'm looking forward to actually reading that one. What have you been working through and/or enjoying lately?

Thanks!

[cddallara]

My son(15) and I enjoy Lee Childs' books... liking Dick Francis' as well lately.
Cant go wrong with Tom Robbins or Carl Hiaasen (sp?) either.

[cddallara]

Into Thin Air about Mt. Everest
How Starbucks Saved My Life
Perfect Storm
A Long Way Gone about a child soldier in Sierra Leone

Havent read 2, but 1, 3 and 4

[scootermcfly]

Non-fiction :

Shop Class as Soulcraft : An Inquiry into the Value of Work - Matthew Crawford
Cannonball! : World's Greatest Outlaw Road Race - Brock Yates

Fiction :

Hyperion - Dan Simmons
Starship Troopers - Robert Heinlein (yes I know it's military based sci-fi, but one of my favorites)

[Frybrid 524td]

The Devil All the Time
Donald Ray Pollock

[oldskool]

My girlfriend has been looking at much Longfellow lately and it seems to please her.

[sbeckman7]

The Celestine Prophecy

Just makes you think about life. Very good read.

[Karl Grau]

These are the last two books I read cover to cover. It was aloud to an audience though.









I plan on rereading some of the classics this summer.

[oldskool]

I plan on rereading some of the classics this summer.
[/quote]

If you need a signed copy just let me know Junior.

[John in VA]

From Mary Roach, a humorous science writer:
Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void
Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers
Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex

Life by Keith Richards and James Fox
Shakey: Neil Young's Biography by Jimmy McDonough

The Old Man and The Sea by Ernest Hemingway

[rlomba8204]

I recently finished Winston's War: Churchill, 1940-1945 by Max Hastings. Thoroughly enjoyed it. As dense as it was it was so good I raced through it in a few days.

Another recent read I recommend highly: On Bullshit by Harry Frankfurt. Very enjoyable, particularly for those of us who make a living with the golden shovel.

[smitty]

Wow...just wow.
I've just reread this for the third time in 25 or so years.
Hilarious, upsetting, disgusting, fascinating...

I'll be shopping for the other eight in the series.

[MicahO]

'Tis the season for a good read!

I was researching home-brewed liquid rocket fuels yesterday (um..... don't ask?) and I came across this:

http://library.sciencemadness.org/libra ... nition.pdf

Absolutely fabulous! Read it. Enjoy it. And let it disabuse you of the notion that this is something you might want to do at home.

(I would encourage you to get a real copy, but it's a tad expensive at Amazon....)

[John project car]

I recommend - "A Universe from Nothing: Why There Is Something Rather than Nothing" Paperback – by physicist Lawrence Krauss

[oldskool]

I'm starting to finish The Last Man by Vince Flynn. Good schtuff

[tig]

The Martian was fantastic.