What Books Are You Reading (2022)

[connda]

Has anyone read any recent John Burdett novels.  His writing got really dark around Bangkok Tattoo in the detective Sonchai Jitpleecheep series.  The last I read was The Godfather of Kathmandu.  I don't think he has publish much since then.  Has anyone read anything more recent by Burdett?

[Baron Samedi]

"How the world really works" by Vaclav Smil.

Pretty good and more accessible than his previous books.

 

Edited June 12, 2022 by Baron Samedi

[Lacessit]

On 6/9/2022 at 12:20 PM, spidermike007 said:

Does anyone have any authors they would recommend, who write as well as Barry Eisler, Tom Clancy, or Vince Flynn? Even Tom Wood is good enough, with his Victor series, though he is a bit short on background, character development and atmosphere.

 

Espionage, assassins, spy stuff, etc? Prefer contemporary, as opposed to historic, like Silva, Ludlum, Forsyth, le Carre, etc. Granted those are great writers, but more historic. 

 

Have tried so many, and most are real hacks. Lee Child, Joseph Finder, Scot Harvath, Brad Taylor, Ben Coes, Brad Thor, Mark Greaney, Deon Meyer, L.T. Ryan, and others. Most bore me to tears. 

Carl Hiassen, Skink series

John D MacDonald, Travis McGee series

Maurice Druon, Accursed Kings series

Kerry Greenwood, Phryne Fisher series.

C.J.Box,Joe Pickett series

James Lee Burke,Robicheaux series

Steve Martini,Paul Madriani series

Eric Flint, 1632 alternate history series

Janet Evanovich, Stephanie Plum series

F Paul Wilson, Repairman Jack series

Ben Aaronovitch Rivers of London series

 

Currently revisiting Anne McCaffrey's "Dragonflight" to read to my Thai quasi-grand-daughter.

[spidermike007]

13 hours ago, Lacessit said:

Carl Hiassen, Skink series

John D MacDonald, Travis McGee series

Maurice Druon, Accursed Kings series

Kerry Greenwood, Phryne Fisher series.

C.J.Box,Joe Pickett series

James Lee Burke,Robicheaux series

Steve Martini,Paul Madriani series

Eric Flint, 1632 alternate history series

Janet Evanovich, Stephanie Plum series

F Paul Wilson, Repairman Jack series

Ben Aaronovitch Rivers of London series

 

Currently revisiting Anne McCaffrey's "Dragonflight" to read to my Thai quasi-grand-daughter.

Thanks. Tried Joe Pickett. Too much family melodrama for me. And he does seem a bit wimpy. But, will look at the others. 

[biervoormij]

On 6/9/2022 at 10:39 PM, The Hammer2021 said:

Christopher  C Moore

Writes about the Thai  underworld. Since his early  books- The Killing Smile trilogy he has improved enormously and are very informative about Thai  language  and culture, crime and politics

Thanks for the recommendation I have been looking for Thailand books. I thought I would point out that I think you mean Christopher G Moore not C.  I came up with an author that did not appear to write about Thailand on my first search.

 

Would anyone have Christopher G Moore books in an Epub format or recommend a torrent site for books? I have only found Missing in Rangoon on a torrent site and there are not any seeds.

[OBOR]

Books in Epub.

  Try https://z-lib.org/

 

 

[biervoormij]

1 hour ago, OBOR said:

Books in Epub.

  Try https://z-lib.org/

 

 

Thanks for the link. Did not find any Christopher G Moore but found other books I have looked for in the past.

[OBOR]

biervoormij
Try another search for Christopher G Moore in https://z-lib.org/
Scroll down. He is further down the list.
He's got plenty of books there.

[biervoormij]

@OBOR Thanks for pointing this out to me. With all the Christopher Moore and Christopher W Moore books I missed the Christopher G Moore ones.

 

Thanks again for pointing me to this site. It will keep me in books for months.

[LaosLover]

Currently re-reading Tai Magic, a book about their yantra-based imagery that pops up in a lot tattoo's. Amazon tells me this book is now fetching $1,260, so let the bidding war begin -or maybe just ask a motorcycle taxi guy what's what about that blurry tiger on his back.

 

Loved Private Dancer and wish that guy's other books were as good.

 

SnakeHead, about Chinese people-trafficking in the USA is a gripper for people who like stuff like Grisham etc. Couldn't put it down.

 

The same author just did another masterpiece about the Sackler family, of world-wide oxycontin epidemic-fame.

[biervoormij]

Thanks for the people that talked about Private Dancer by Stephen Leather and @sanuk711 for providing me a copy. It was a real page turner and found it hard to put down. I did find it depressing and a really dark outlook on Thai-foreigner interactions. I am glad I read it but not sure I would recommend the book.

 

Now I am trying to read the Pulitzer prize winner for fiction 2022, The Netanyahus. From what I have read so far am not sure why it won the prize but I seem to only enjoy about 30% of the Pulitzer prize winners I have read.

[connda]

I've just taken a break with the Wheel of Time series after book 6 Lords Of Chaos.

I've moved on to the last book in the Expanse series.
Leviathan Falls

The last two books in the Expanse series takes us much further than the TV series.  And although I enjoyed the TV series I think the books are significantly better, deeper, richer.  And the TV series chooses to end without exploring the theme of the Laconian Empire and its use of the Protomolecule.

Here's a book review.
https://thecityvoice.org/2021/12/16/leviathan-falls-review-the-churn-even-at-the-end/

[kickstart]

 

On 6/9/2022 at 10:08 PM, connda said:

Must be a  popular book  in Thailand ,I got it given to me by a friend ,found it was a fascinating read .

My nomination is Swedish author Stieg Larsson ,The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo,and the other two books in the series , just finished the third last week .

And of course Tomas Hardy ,Tess of the d'Urbervilles, The Woodlanders ,and Jude the obscure.  

[Mark Nothing]

I read a non fiction book called The Creature of Jekyll Island a Look at the Federal Reserve Bank  by G Edward Griffin.

 

The book explains how a group of monopolists gained control of the monetary printing press and used the power to expand the monopoly power into multiple arenas.  To expedite the process, principles were created out of thin air and taught as fact in schools.

[Mark Nothing]

In 1920 Henry Ford, car maker, wrote a nonfiction book called the World's Foremost Problem.

 

The book is a series of 80 editorials written for Henry Ford's Detroit Michigan newspaper, the Dearborn Gazette which describes the monopolists in great detail.  The monopolist's standard strategies, tricks, gameplans are revealed.

[huangnon]

Just re-reading a few old Henry Miller classics.

 

Tropic of Cancer.

Quiet Days in Clichy.

Black Spring.

 

Amazingly rich prose, free-association and vocab. Also pretty visceral and tackles taboo (1930's era) matter with lots of energy. Great reading.

 

 

[Screaming]

One of my favorite authors in Paul Theroux. I have read just about everyone of his books. While I do love his travel books I also love his fiction. His book "Collected Stories" has sixty wonderful short stories that will fascinate you. His writing style is superb, engrossing you into the plot with an often interesting but unsettling ending.

[Moonlover]

On 6/9/2022 at 5:10 PM, FolkGuitar said:

I'm in the middle of  'Pillars of the Earth' by Ken Follett.

Look up the sequels in the 'Kingsbridge trilogy', World Without End' and 'A Column of Fire'. They follow on almost seamlessly from Pillars.

 

I followed that up by reading his 'Centuries', series, another great Follet trilogy.

 I think I was reading Ken Follet almost daily for 2 to 3 months.

 

A new author for me is Alex Gerlis. He used to be a BBC journo but has now moved on writing spy thrillers. First up is 'Agent in Berlin'. Good read so far.

 

[Photoguy21]

Coding for Network Security

[zzaa09]

[zzaa09]

[OBOR]

Paul Theroux
The consul's file
A nice read. Nothing heavy duty. 

Spencer Savage, a young American consul, is posted to Ayer Hitam, a small Malaysian town, in the 1970s. Told to close down this remote outpost in the sweltering jungle, he instead finds himself drawn to the many characters he meets among the Malays, Indians, Japanese, Chinese, and the clubbable expat Brits. Through his eyes we see the rich tapestry of multi-ethnic life in post-colonial Malaysia, from adultery to murder, from ghost stories to the murky waters of diplomatic politics. It is a brilliant portrait of a vanished time, a lost landscape and scattered peoples.

[Mark Nothing]

I read a 1957 book by Eleanor McBean, PhD, titled The Poisoned Needle, Suppressed Facts About Vaccinations.

 

The author shows the purpose of vaccine innoculations is to intentionally sicken citizens to create a more profitable money making medical industry for the serum and tablet makers. To encourage the public to participate, ingenious marketing gimmicks of fear were "discovered" such as contagion and  virus which are taught as fact in medical schools.

 

She prooves the true culprits of disease results from anything that acts as a drain on vital human energy negatively affecting the immune system which ultimately leads to Toxemia, which is the accumulation of cellular decay wastes due to any number of factors such as poisons, pesticides, denatured foods, poor diet, worry, stress, overwork, lack of sleep, marital stress, overindulgence in alcohol, lack of fresh air and sunshine, lack of exercise. 

 

When the Toxemia reaches an overloaded state, a cold or other disease occurs.  You feel depleted while the human body immune system kicks in to eliminate the debris.  Once eliminated health returns.

 

 

[ColeBOzbourne]

Just finished True History of the Kelly Gang by Peter Carey. Before that I was reading Carved in Bone by Jefferson Bass and characters in that book kept mentioning another book, Child of God by Cormac McCarthy, so I went and found it. The two books compliment each other nicely. 

[Mark Nothing]

I read the 1944 book The Waters of Life by John Armstrong which is an extraordinary clinical record of miraculous healing detailed case by case.

 

The author had a medical clinic using alternative therapy from those taught in medical schools in England from 1918 to 1944 and successfully treated every ailment, even the most extreme, after doctors and hospitals abandoned patients and told them to go home and prepare for death.

 

The treatment Armstrong used was fasting (no food intake) and urine therapy (drinking and massaging into skin).  And is a cureall for every ailment.

 

The ailments successfully treated in the book were pneumonia, tuberculosis, gangrene, kidney disease, breast cancer, kidney stones, leukemia, malaria, burns, pancreatitis, and many others.  It also works on all non life threatening ailments like colds, mosquito bites, bee stings, cuts, sunburns.

 

 I tested the Water of Life therapy on myself and am now ailment free.  It has been a real unexpected pleasure to find this simple, free remedy for every affliction.  Eliminates all pain and no side effects.  Like a reset to health.  The only tool required is a glass.

[John Drake]

On 6/9/2022 at 9:57 AM, connda said:

What books are you reading this year.  This also includes books you may be listening to like Kindle Audibles.

Okay shifted from the Social Security thread. What am I paying $27 to $50 shipping on?  Here are some titles:

 

Peter W. Rainier, Green Fire

 

Michael Keon, The Durian Tree

 

David Dodge, How Green was My Father, How Lost was My Weekend, The Crazy Glasspecker, 20,000 Leagues Behind the Eightball, Shear the Black Sheep, The Red Tassel, Carambola

 

Norman Lewis, A Single Pilgrim

 

Lawrence Klingman, His Majesty O'Keefe

 

I look for a lot of obscure stuff that at one time was quite popular.

[connda]

I finally gave up on the Wheel of Time series after book 7.

The author's topics and character construction simply get boring with the same tropes over and over and over.

Too much dialogue without wrapping up plots and subplot.
I'm really tired of the constant references to the physical beauty of the main characters as well as their implied sexulaity.
So much is wrapped in boobs, nakedness, and knives.  One or two books like that?  Ok!  14 book?  The author burnt me out at Book 7.
The series could have had more plot substance and wrapped up with half the books.  Same people, same lines, old and worn.
Not a lot of character progression. By book 7 Nynaeve should have yanked out the portion of her skull that is attached to her braid.  Boring, boring boring.

I tried going directly to the last book regarding "The Last Battle" but I was just burnt out on the characters and their juvenile worries about who will love whom and then the pages and pages of needless angst.  It burnt me out.  I couldn't finish the last book. 
This is a series where I'd suggest that less would have been better.  The characters simply stewed in their inability to progress to interpersonal behavior that I'd expect from insecure teenagers. 
When the author when into pure fantasy, it was pretty good.  But too little fantasy and too much mundane characterizations of the protagonists who seem to never be able to progress past behavior I'd expect with adolescents with unsolvable crushes.

I had to give it up.  It was boring me to tears.

So I've moved on to listening to The Lord Of The Rings as an audio book.  I've read the books every 10 to 12 years since I was a kid, and I still like watching the movies.  But I've yet to kick back and listen to narration, which in this case is pretty good.  And now that cannabis is decriminalized?  I enjoy a couple of tokes (It doesn't take much), turn on the audio-book, kick back, and let my mind manufacture imagery.  Even though I know the story well, I keep picking up new and novel perspectives that I don't remember reading before.  Perhaps listening to the audio triggers different parts of the mind to fabricate the imaginary scenery.  The quality of writing between Tolkien and Jordan is very evident.  Talkien is a superior writer in my own opinion.
I'll watch the TV series.  Considering that the Aei Sedai don't age, I don't see how far they will be able to go with a series before the characters age to unbelievably.  Well - unless they embrace Deep-Fake tech.  Which they could.


Anyway - Regarding The Lord Of The Rings - we are now in Rivendell and starting to plan The Quest to destroy the One Ring Of Power.  So far I'm thoroughly enjoying it. 

Next up will be C.S. Lewis's Narnia Series which I've never read before.  But that will be in a couple of weeks methinks.

[sanuk711]

On 7/1/2022 at 9:21 PM, Mark Nothing said:

I read the 1944 book The Waters of Life by John Armstrong which is an extraordinary clinical record of miraculous healing detailed case by case.

Gosh i read that so many years ago--- had forgotten about until I read your post, a naturopath gave it to me-- in those days I was (I think) so fit, I didn't try it out, & it was a subject that would have been difficult to talk to most of my friends about. 

[ivor bigun]

In my life i must have read 100 books ,then some fool invented the mobile phone.

[billd766]

I have just finished a book by Mall Nunn called A beautiful Place to Die.

 

Set in South Africa in the 1950s about a detective assigned to investigate the murder of a white police captain.

 

I had problems putting it down even to sleep and I always wanted to read more of it.

 

It has more twists and turns than a Thai politicians statement.