What book are you reading atm?? CHAPTER TWO

mikemac2 · 11-04-2021 4:02pm

Homicide: A year on the killing streets by David Simon

I saw the TV production of this a long time ago. Both the TV show and the book are super

A journalist spent a year with the Baltimore homicide detective department.

It's an amazing book and gives lots of things you might never learn. Like how to convince a suspect to talk and sign away his right to a lawyer. All human life sure isn't equal and a drug gang murder will get investigated but a tourist murdered in a good part of town will get unlimited overtime and pressure from the top brass and media. I suppose is the same in all countries really. Everything is so needlessly political

I love this book

Thargor · 11-04-2021 10:26pm

Reading Homocide now thanks, forgot I already had it for some reason.

Arghus · 12-04-2021 8:10pm

I always mean to religiously update this thread after each book, but I always forget and then there's a few in one go, anyway:

An Instance of The Fingerpost by Iain Pears - Really excellent historical mystery set in the 17th century. An initally simple enough story is re-told from differing perspectives. Works equally well as a page turner and as an exploration of the political and social world of that period. One of a kind this book. Highly recommended.

Real Life by Brandon Taylor - Campus novel of a young gay black man coming of age in a predominantly white American University. While it contained some insight, obviously hard won from lived experience and might appeal to some people, I found it overwrought, extremely overwritten and weirdly unaffecting. Pretty hum-drum.

Notes From an Apocalypse: A Personal Journey to the End of the World and Back by Mark O' Connell - Great literary non fiction. Partially about time the author spent with those planning and making money off any potential future global cataclysm, but also a deeper investigation into what anxieties we feel - or at least should feel - in a world that can often appear to be irredeemably fcked. O' Connell is a great writer: articulate, knowledgeable but honest and perceptive. Thought it was a great read to be honest.

Periodic Tales by Hugh Aldersey Williams - Whistle stop tour through the history - discovery, use, cultural history - of a proportion of the elements. Meh, it was occasionally interesting, but it was a pretty scattershot affair. It wasn't rigorous enough to really teach me anything that will stick or whimsical enough to keep me fully entertained. A bit of a chore.

Angynomics by Eric Longeran and Mark Blyth - Very interesting and persuasive overview of the economic causes, problems because of and potential solutions to global anger, its economic drivers and its political ramifications. There's a bit of everything in here - economic and social history, theory, prognostication and forecasting. A lot of the book is about anger, but it's also fundamentally optimistic about what can be done to assuage it. It's robust enough, but also quite easy to get through. Recommended.

Aglomerado · 12-04-2021 8:58pm

Arghus wrote: »

I always mean to religiously update this thread after each book, but I always forget and then there's a few in one go, anyway:

An Instance of The Fingerpost by Iain Pears - Really excellent historical mystery set in the 17th century. An initally simple enough story is re-told from differing perspectives. Works equally well as a page turner and as an exploration of the political and social world of that period. One of a kind this book. Highly recommended.

Real Life by Brandon Taylor - Campus novel of a young gay black man coming of age in a predominantly white American University. While it contained some insight, obviously hard won from lived experience and might appeal to some people, I found it overwrought, extremely overwritten and weirdly unaffecting. Pretty hum-drum.

Notes From an Apocalypse: A Personal Journey to the End of the World and Back by Mark O' Connell - Great literary non fiction. Partially about time the author spent with those planning and making money off any potential future global cataclysm, but also a deeper investigation into what anxieties we feel - or at least should feel - in a world that can often appear to be irredeemably fcked. O' Connell is a great writer: articulate, knowledgeable but honest and perceptive. Thought it was a great read to be honest.

Periodic Tales by Hugh Aldersey Williams - Whistle stop tour through the history - discovery, use, cultural history - of a proportion of the elements. Meh, it was occasionally interesting, but it was a pretty scattershot affair. It wasn't rigorous enough to really teach me anything that will stick or whimsical enough to keep me fully entertained. A bit of a chore.

Angynomics by Eric Longeran and Mark Blyth - Very interesting and persuasive overview of the economic causes, problems because of and potential solutions to global anger, its economic drivers and its political ramifications. There's a bit of everything in here - economic and social history, theory, prognostication and forecasting. A lot of the book is about anger, but it's also fundamentally optimistic about what can be done to assuage it. It's robust enough, but also quite easy to get through. Recommended.

Plus one on An Instance of the Fingerpost. I got it as a gift over 20 years ago and would never part with it. I like to revisit it every few years.

Arghus · 12-04-2021 9:26pm

Aglomerado wrote: »

Plus one on An Instance of the Fingerpost. I got it as a gift over 20 years ago and would never part with it. I like to revisit it every few years.

An outstanding book. It's got it all really. It's extremely entertaining, involving and amazingly researched. The best historical fiction I've read, after Flashman, of course.

Whestsidestory · 12-04-2021 9:43pm

The moth and the mountain really enjoyed it a great story of a man who attempted to fly to Everest base camp and climb from there

nigeldaniel · 13-04-2021 12:01pm

I just got my hands on a 1990's edition of Wind In The Willows, K Grahame. It's a great read and a nice trip back to when I was a lad.

Loafing Oaf · 13-04-2021 2:20pm

Mistresses: Sex and Scandal at the Court of Charles II, by Linda Porter

Not nearly as saucy as the title suggests, but still an illuminating exploration of a (to me) fascinating era

Tauriel · 15-04-2021 2:50pm

The Diary of A Young Girl - Anne Frank

Finally got around to reading this.

fixXxer · 15-04-2021 3:29pm

mustang shelly wrote: »

The Diary of A Young Girl - Anne Frank

Finally got around to reading this.

I remember visiting her hiding place when I was over in the Netherlands. I cannot imagine what it was like staying in that tiny space for all that time, without all the modern conveniences we take for granted.

McGinniesta · 15-04-2021 4:03pm

Bad Blood by John Carreyrou

appledrop · 15-04-2021 10:47pm

mustang shelly wrote: »

The Diary of A Young Girl - Anne Frank

Finally got around to reading this.

I'D recommend Clara's War aswell.

I've just finished re-reading it and still powerful second time around.

Graces7 · 20-04-2021 1:11pm

Old age... the print in Lord of the Rings is too small so I am waiting for a magnifier page I ordered. Frustration... All downhill now …. Like sitting with a box of chocolates you cannot open

gutenberg · 23-04-2021 9:12am

Currently reading Francesca Wade’s ‘ Square Haunting: Five Women, Freedom and London Between the Wars’. It’s a kind of collective biography of five prominent women (Hilda Doolittle, Dorothy L. Sayers, Jane Harrison, Eileen Power & Virginia Woolf) who all lived in the same London square in Bloomsbury at some point between the First and Second World Wars, and uses that as a device to explore topics such as interwar literature, the female suffrage movement, academia, and the emergence of socialist politics. Very much enjoying it so far.

bladespin · 27-04-2021 1:47pm

On a classics binge: Phantom of the Opera, The adventures of Tom Sawyer etc.

JeffreyEpspeen · 27-04-2021 1:51pm

A Time for Mercy by John Grisham.

Halfway through and enjoying it quite a bit.

A welcome departure from Camino Island which bored me stiff.

Grisham books can verge on either extreme, which is having great momentum or having no momentum.

Never know what you might get.

ulster · 01-05-2021 4:14pm

Alfred Bester - The Stars My Destination.

It'd be class if people could jaunt. Very interesting concept.

The book's about a man Gully Foyle, trying to get revenge for being abandoned in space. Good story.

But the ending of the book is mental.

fixXxer · 01-05-2021 10:59pm

ulster wrote: »

Alfred Bester - The Stars My Destination.

It'd be class if people could jaunt. Very interesting concept.

The book's about a man Gully Foyle, trying to get revenge for being abandoned in space. Good story.

But the ending of the book is mental.

It's a very unusual story! Read it the same time as another oddball space book, The Forever War. Worth a look after.

Tauriel · 05-05-2021 5:49pm

The Crusades: The War for the Holy Land by Thomas Asbridge

This book chronicles all of the crusades launched by popes throughout the eleventh, twelfth and thirteenth centuries. The book takes a look at the crusades and jihad from both a Christian and Muslim perspective. The author also looks at how Islamic fundamentalists such as Bin Laden has twisted the history of the crusades to justify terrorist attacks in the West.

gutenberg · 05-05-2021 8:07pm

Have started The Lido by Libby Page.

Tauriel · 09-05-2021 1:34pm

The Bone Code by Kathy Reichs

This is the most recent book in the Temperance Brennan series and it is a good read. However, as with A Conspiracy of Bones, I feel that the fast pace that Reichs was renowned for is not there anymore to the same extent as was in the first 20 novels in this series.

Samsgirl · 09-05-2021 1:50pm

mustang shelly wrote: »

The Bone Code by Kathy Reichs

This is the most recent book in the Temperance Brennan series and it is a good read. However, as with A Conspiracy of Bones, I feel that the fast pace that Reichs was renowned for is not there anymore to the same extent as was in the first 20 novels in this series.

I just started this last night. Will probably finish tonight.

Fake Scores · 09-05-2021 2:41pm

Programmed to Kill: The Politics of Serial Murder
David McGowan

pottokblue · 11-05-2021 11:59am

I've just started Klaraandthesun: izuguro

I'm going to the library today first time in 2021 and gonna get myself some books.....

Loafing Oaf · 11-05-2021 12:46pm

The Boundless Sea: A Human History of the Oceans
by David Abulafia

Bit of a slog but has some interesting bits

nigeldaniel · 15-05-2021 7:55pm

Nikola Tesla by Sean Patrick got it on a free download at google play.

appledrop · 17-05-2021 12:55am

Boys Dont Cry by Fiona Scarlett.

Just read it in one sitting, couldn't put it down.

It will break your heart, a beautifully written book.

Tauriel · 17-05-2021 2:42pm

Chastise by Max Hastings.

This is the account of the lead up to, the execution and the fallout of the infamous "Dambusters" raid in May 1943 by the RAF.

I initially found it slightly difficult to get into this book as at the beginning it went through the family structure of some personnel. However, when the book got into the development of the Upkeep bombs, testing and execution of the raid, the book became very enjoyable and I ploughed through it no problem.

bladespin · 21-05-2021 3:14pm

Tony Parsons' Max Wolfe series,good old fashioned detective books, loving them.

Qiaonasen · 21-05-2021 3:31pm

Just finished Milkman by Anna Burns lastweek. Thought it was fantastic. Now reading Hard Boiled Wonderland and the end of the world by Murakami. Bit weird so far. It's my first Murakami novel. Read many short stories. I will stick with it.

What book are you reading atm?? CHAPTER TWO

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