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Re: What are you reading?

Posted: Mon Jun 22, 2020 10:42 am
by mockbee
I'm reading this:

Cuba. A History by Hugh Thomas
From award-winning historian Hugh Thomas, Cuba: A History is the essential work for understanding one of the most fascinating and controversial countries in the world.

Hugh Thomas's acclaimed book explores the whole sweep of Cuban history from the British capture of Havana in 1762 through the years of Spanish and United States domination, down to the twentieth century and the extraordinary revolution of Fidel Castro.

Throughout this period of over two hundred years, Hugh Thomas analyses the political, economic and social events that have shaped Cuban history with extraordinary insight and panache, covering subjects ranging from sugar, tobacco and education to slavery, war and occupation.

Encyclopaedic in range and breathtaking in execution, Cuba is surely one of the seminal works of world history.
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I started in Sept and only a quarter way through.
It's a thousand page tomb, dense text with a dozen footnotes per page. Some nights I go negative pages because it's been a week and I want to reorient myself with what I read. :no:

But, overall great read! :thumb: ....There will be a celebration when I finish. :lol:

Re: What are you reading?

Posted: Mon Jun 22, 2020 10:49 am
by mockbee
I really want to finish this damn book because my stack of new ones I am eager to read is getting big. I'm set for at least several years because Wilderness and the American Mind and Democracy in America will take me a year each to read... :lol:

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Re: What are you reading?

Posted: Thu Aug 13, 2020 5:23 pm
by perkana
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The documentary is really good. And it has a happy ending. I'm addicted to this stuff.

Re: What are you reading?

Posted: Wed Aug 19, 2020 3:01 pm
by mockbee
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A Man Without a Country is an essay collection published in 2005 by the author Kurt Vonnegut. The essays deal with topics ranging from the importance of humor, to problems with modern technology, to Vonnegut's opinions on the differences between men and women.

Just finished this. Took about two weeks, reading a couple minutes before bed. Very good, published just before Vonnegut died. He would be appalled, and probably die of a broken heart if he knew about Trump. ..... :wavesad:


Now back to the Cuba tomb..... :balls:


Probably this first though......excited to read this. :cool:

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The Sellout

A biting satire about a young man's isolated upbringing and the race trial that sends him to the Supreme Court, Paul Beatty's The Sellout showcases a comic genius at the top of his game. It challenges the sacred tenets of the United States Constitution, urban life, the civil rights movement, the father-son relationship, and the holy grail of racial equality: the black Chinese restaurant.

Born in the "agrarian ghetto" of Dickens—on the southern outskirts of Los Angeles—the narrator of The Sellout resigns himself to the fate of lower-middle-class Californians: "I'd die in the same bedroom I'd grown up in, looking up at the cracks in the stucco ceiling that've been there since the '68 quake."

Re: What are you reading?

Posted: Fri Aug 21, 2020 9:31 am
by chaos
mockbee wrote:
Wed Aug 19, 2020 3:01 pm
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A Man Without a Country is an essay collection published in 2005 by the author Kurt Vonnegut. The essays deal with topics ranging from the importance of humor, to problems with modern technology, to Vonnegut's opinions on the differences between men and women.

Just finished this. Took about two weeks, reading a couple minutes before bed. Very good, published just before Vonnegut died. He would be appalled, and probably die of a broken heart if he knew about Trump. ..... :wavesad:


If you are a big Vonnegut fan, Charles Shields's biography is a must read. Although it's long, it's a page turner.

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Re: What are you reading?

Posted: Fri Aug 21, 2020 1:52 pm
by mockbee
I am not really a fan of Vonnegut writing, the man for sure, but I tolerate the writing.
:thumb:

Breakfast of Champions I loved theoretically but took me forever to complete because I always got bored.
:lol:


Def will check out that book though. The dresden experience would be fascinating.

:tiphat:

Re: What are you reading?

Posted: Fri Aug 21, 2020 2:41 pm
by chaos
^Yeah, I've only read Cat's Cradle. You do not need to be a fan or have read any of his work to enjoy Shields's biography. It's that good. Vonnegut was a complicated/flawed person. On the one hand I gained some respect for him based on the fact that he came from a privileged background and chose to enlist and join the war as a soldier. On the other hand, he did not treat people well and is unlikeable. (Btw - V's experience in Dresden is compelling.)

Re: What are you reading?

Posted: Fri Aug 21, 2020 11:42 pm
by nausearockpig
I read this series the other day, fucking love Mark Millar’s work.

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Re: What are you reading?

Posted: Sat Aug 22, 2020 11:00 am
by Xizen47
Just started "Ask the Dust" by John Fante and ran into some familiar words-

"Los Angeles, give me some of you! Los Angeles come to me the way I came to you, my feet over your streets, you pretty town I loved you so much, you sad flower in the sand, you pretty town".

Had to break out the Deconstructon album for the 1st time in over a decade :rockon:

Re: What are you reading?

Posted: Tue Sep 08, 2020 2:10 am
by parklife03
I'm reading 22/11/63 by Stephen King (or 11/22/63 if you are from North America, lol). It's going very well.

I'm actually trying to read all his books. So far I have read 32, but he just keeps releasing more and more. It's a nice challenge, as I love his writing.

Re: What are you reading?

Posted: Fri Nov 06, 2020 10:30 am
by chaos
I have read several books revolving around the Trump presidency and I have enjoyed Schmidt's book the most (3/4 through it). This one is worth your time.

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Re: What are you reading?

Posted: Tue Dec 15, 2020 7:08 pm
by mockbee
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Just got this in the mail - not that I need any more books on the shelf to read....

But, really looking forward to it. :cool:

Right up my alley - 1000 page tomb that will take me years to finish... :neutral:

Has anyone read Michener? Like him?

Re: What are you reading?

Posted: Fri Feb 12, 2021 12:41 pm
by chaos
First written in 2009. Translated by Antonia Lloyd-Jones in 2019.

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https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/drive- ... 1128996442
Overview

WINNER OF THE NOBEL PRIZE IN LITERATURE

"A brilliant literary murder mystery." —Chicago Tribune

"Extraordinary. Tokarczuk's novel is funny, vivid, dangerous, and disturbing, and it raises some fierce questions about human behavior. My sincere admiration for her brilliant work." —Annie Proulx

In a remote Polish village, Janina devotes the dark winter days to studying astrology, translating the poetry of William Blake, and taking care of the summer homes of wealthy Warsaw residents. Her reputation as a crank and a recluse is amplified by her not-so-secret preference for the company of animals over humans. Then a neighbor, Big Foot, turns up dead. Soon other bodies are discovered, in increasingly strange circumstances. As suspicions mount, Janina inserts herself into the investigation, certain that she knows whodunit. If only anyone would pay her mind . . .

A deeply satisfying thriller cum fairy tale, Drive Your Plow over the Bones of the Dead is a provocative exploration of the murky borderland between sanity and madness, justice and tradition, autonomy and fate. Whom do we deem sane? it asks. Who is worthy of a voice?

Re: What are you reading?

Posted: Fri Feb 12, 2021 1:33 pm
by Larry B.
https://d1w7fb2mkkr3kw.cloudfront.net/a ... 837526.jpg

Fascinating and full of evidence. An absolute game changer.

For instance, she makes a point about how important it is to discover how emotions are made inside a human being, considering how much is at stake when we just trust in our own, subjective perception of what someone else is feeling. We might or might not give them a job; might or might not entrust them with our children; might or might not sentence them to death.

It explains how the common theories that we “know” and use in everyday life have long been disproved, but societies have not made any changes on the face of relatively recent (and overwhelming) evidence as to how emotions are really made.

If you can, get it. If someone wants it for their Kindle, send me a message and I’ll send it to you.

Re: What are you reading?

Posted: Wed Feb 24, 2021 1:56 pm
by SR

Re: What are you reading?

Posted: Wed Apr 07, 2021 11:11 am
by chaos
I am currently reading two books: This is How They Tell Me the World Ends by Nicole Perlroth and, Moonwalking With Einstein by Joshua Foer. Both are well written and, the material is made accessible for a lay person.

With regard Nicole's Perlroth's book, when she was asked by the NYT to take on the cybersecurity beat she told them there were more qualified reporters; she didn't know anything about cybersecurity. The NYT said "We interviewed those people. We didn't understand anything they were saying." :lol: (So I really mean it when I say the material is accessible.)

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About This Is How They Tell Me the World Ends
“Part John le Carré and more parts Michael Crichton . . . spellbinding.” –The New Yorker

From The New York Times cybersecurity reporter Nicole Perlroth, the untold story of the cyberweapons market-the most secretive, invisible, government-backed market on earth-and a terrifying first look at a new kind of global warfare.

Zero day: a software bug that allows a hacker to break into your devices and move around undetected. One of the most coveted tools in a spy's arsenal, a zero day has the power to silently spy on your iPhone, dismantle the safety controls at a chemical plant, alter an election, and shut down the electric grid (just ask Ukraine).

For decades, under cover of classification levels and non-disclosure agreements, the United States government became the world's dominant hoarder of zero days. U.S. government agents paid top dollar-first thousands, and later millions of dollars- to hackers willing to sell their lock-picking code and their silence.

Then the United States lost control of its hoard and the market.

Now those zero days are in the hands of hostile nations and mercenaries who do not care if your vote goes missing, your clean water is contaminated, or our nuclear plants melt down.

Filled with spies, hackers, arms dealers, and a few unsung heroes, written like a thriller and a reference, This Is How They Tell Me the World Ends is an astonishing feat of journalism. Based on years of reporting and hundreds of interviews, The New York Times reporter Nicole Perlroth lifts the curtain on a market in shadow, revealing the urgent threat faced by us all if we cannot bring the global cyber arms race to heel.
_____________________________________________

With regard to Joshua Foer's book, it was mentioned in a documentary I watched recently called Memory Games (on Netflix). This book is a fun, smooth read.

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As any freelance writer can tell you, every story needs a hook, something to grab the attention of harried editors with fingers hovering over their "delete" buttons, and Joshua Foer may well have one of the greatest hooks to come along in recent memory (no pun intended). After covering the 2005 U.S. Memory Championship for Slate, Foer was challenged by Tony Buzan, founder of the World Memory Championship, to put the competitors' memory techniques to the test by training and competing in the following year's competition. Not only did Foer take up the challenge, enlisting the help of British memory grandmaster Ed Cooke, he actually won the 2006 U.S. championship and broke the American speed record for memorizing the order of a shuffled deck of cards (1 minute, 40 seconds). A book deal (complete with a much-ballyhooed $1.2 million advance) and movie option soon followed. Not bad for a guy who readily admits to still forgetting where he put his keys if not his entire car.

While Foer's remarkable achievement makes for a compelling story, it would soon wear thin as the sole premise of a book or movie. "The contest itself unfolded with all the excitement of, say, the SAT," he wrote in Slate, lacking the high drama one expects of sporting events, spelling bees, air-guitar competitions or hot-dog eating contests.

Happily, Foer's "Moonwalking With Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything
," is a smart, thoughtful, engaging book, one that not only chronicles the year he spent preparing and training his memory for the 2006 championship, but also his efforts to try to understand what memory is, how it works and the role it has played in Western civilization and education.

Those who read "Moonwalking With Einstein" (the title is taken from one of Foer's less bawdy mnemonic devices for remembering a series of three numbers) in hopes of discovering the secret to possessing a photographic memory won't be disappointed, at least not completely -- he makes no secret of the techniques he used to capture the U.S. title, even going so far as walking readers through the memorization of a random shopping list using the ancient method of loci or "memory palace" technique.

"Anyone could do it" seems to be the surprising consensus. But those who are looking solely for a self-help book or an effortless key to unlocking their mind's potential would be better served by taking their chances with faddish "brain gyms," "memory boot camps" or the $265 million-a-year brain-training software industry. Foer's memory successes came about mainly through time-honored techniques and hard work, hardly the stuff of get-rich-quick hucksters.

So how useful is the ability to memorize the first 50,000 digits of pi, or Milton's "Paradise Lost," or the exact order of 27 shuffled decks of cards? Extraordinary as they may be, do those abilities amount to nothing more than nerdy party tricks? Foer acknowledges the validity of such claims, but at the same time points out that dismissing memory development and ignoring its long history as an important, worthwhile discipline is to completely miss the point.

"How we perceive the world and how we act in it are products of how and what we remember," he writes. "That's what Ed had been trying to impart on me from the beginning: that memory training is not just for the sake of performing party tricks; it's about nurturing something profoundly and essentially human."

Re: What are you reading?

Posted: Thu Apr 08, 2021 12:25 am
by nausearockpig
Spawn comics. I read issues 1 to 100 years ago, then just kinda stopped.....

So rereading 1 to 100 then working my way to 316, and onwards...

Re: What are you reading?

Posted: Mon Sep 06, 2021 9:08 pm
by drwintercreeper
Lanegan’s sing backwards and weep. Brutal.