So What Are You Reading....?
 

I enjoy both reading books and listening to audiobooks while driving to and from my workplace. Since early January, these are the books I have either read or have listened to the audio version. I enjoy a mix of non-fiction and fiction, a good story, exposés, and biographies of influential people. A well written book respite from our daily routine of work and other family obligations. Reading (as well as listening), can be a really joyful experience and expands my horizon, as well as making me think, imagine and question what I believe:

1. The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Olympics
by Daniel James Brown

2. Blue Highways: A Journey into America
by William Least-Heat Moon

3. Sons of Wichita: How the Koch Brothers Became America’s Most Powerful and Private Dynasty
by Daniel Schulman

4. Command Authority (A Jack Ryan Novel)
by Tom Clancy and Mark Greaney

5. Glock: The Rise of America’s Gun
by Paul Barrett

6. American Sniper: The Autobiography of the Most Lethal Sniper in U.S. Military History
by Jim DeFelice, Chris Kyle and Scott McEwan

7. Killing Patton: The Strange Death of World War II’s Most Audacious General
by Bill O’Reilly and Martin Dugard

8. This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. The Climate
by Naomi Klein

9. On His Own Terms: A Life of Nelson Rockefeller
by Richard Norton Smith

10. Excellent Sheep: The Miseducation of the American Elite and the Way to a Meaningful Life
by William Deresiewicz

I am about to start this one:

The Churchill Factor: How One Man Made History
by Boris Johnson

So what books are you all reading....???

AVB-AMG

Seems we don't have many readers here, or at least not posters willing to list their recent reads. Here are mine.

My only recent significant hardcover purchase: The Engine that Could (Cruickshank) - the history and development of the diesel engine at Cummins. Good read for motor heads. Special order, but worth it. How they dealt with each development problem, and market acceptance, over 75 years.

A Year in Provence. We went to Provence on vacation so I wanted to see how many places I recognized

Guidebooks. Costa Brava, Barcelona, Provence, Tuscany. All relating to trips. Rough Guides, Frommer, Steves, DK, etc.

Baking artisan bread. Various books by Peter Reinhart, covering milling of wheat and ancient grains, natural yeasts, and baking.

Cooked, a Natural History of Transformation by Michael Pollan. Recommended.

13 novels by Nevil Shute, including Trustee From the Toolroom, A Town Like Alice, and On the Beach. Read them years ago, went back and read them in order again. Plus Slide Rule, his autobiography.

Thinking I should read Game of Thrones, but haven't started yet.

Jeff

Jeff:

I have to believe that there are more readers out there, especially those forum members over the age of 40-45....

Like you, I also read A Year In Provence by Peter Mayle, prior to our going over to Provence for a 3 week vacation several years ago, and enjoyed the book, but Provence even more.

I enjoy reading/listening to non-fiction books mostly, but after reading a number of books on the cause of the Great Recession and the reasons behind the political polarization and growing inequality in our country, I get rather aggravated, frustrated and depressed and then need to escape into a good novel to get my mind off of the direction this country is taking.

I enjoyed the book on Rockefeller. It really detailed how he was probably one of the last true American aristocrats who was enabled due to his family's, wealth to learn to appreciate art, as well as having the idealized attitude and energy to attempt to solve multiple social problems and issues in the US and in Latin America. He was a traditional moderate Republican, (remember those....), who was proudly liberal on most social issues, while also being very conservative with regards to the military. He probably would have been one of our better President's if he had not gotten divorced or failed to go to Attica during the riot/hostage taking.

Oh well, on to my next book...... The Churchill Factor

AVB-AMG

I like sci-fi books .Recommend something you read,please.Thanks.

bestvaluestore:

(Interesting screen name....)

While I am not a huge fan of sci-fi books, I will admit that the two best sci-fi books that I have ever read are now considered sci-fi classics and are:

Dune
by Frank Herbert

1984
by George Orwell (Closer to reality than many thought it as a fictional, pseudo prophecy at the time of its release, it probably should be titled 2084)….

AVB-AMG

Yes,great classics.I will check out 1984 again,long time since I watched the movie,I think:).

Interestingly, I'm re- reading Animal Farm at the moment. Which I hesitated to mention among such lengthy tomes. :)

Have not had the time for a decent-sized book in years, I think the last one was Black Hawk Down by Mark Bowden.

I have been re-reading Karl Popper's The Open Society and Its Enemies (single volume edition of 2013) pretty much continuously for two years now. Currently I am re-reading again but with all external references and citations too. So I have about 7,000 pages of 'Complete' Plato and Aristotle on my Kindle. Popper uses the Jowett translation.

When I take a break, it is likely physics or cosmology. On our recent road trip, we listened to Charles Frazier's Thirteen Moons. The book was a flop, but Will Patton's reading is wonderful.

Invitation to Goodreads https://www.goodreads.com/friend/i?i...U2Njc1Nzk6NDI3

Stanford University's Professor Leonard Susskind's 165 physics lectures, from Classical Mechanics to Quantum Entanglement and beyond
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...8x1lo-O_kpZGk8

Latest Reading List
 

Here is an update on my current and recent reading list as of April 2015.

FYI – As a recap, I enjoy both reading books and listening to audiobooks while driving to and from my workplace. The following are the most recent books I have either read or have listened to the audio version. I enjoy a mix of non-fiction and fiction, a good story, exposés, and biographies of influential people. A well written book respite from our daily routine of work and other family obligations. Reading (as well as listening), can be a really joyful experience and expands my horizon, as well as making me think, imagine and question what I believe:


1. The Wright Brothers
By Dave McCullough

2. All the Truth Is Out: The Week Politics Went Tabloid (The Gary Hart Affair)
By Matt Bai

3. The Impulse Society: America In the Age of Instant Gratification
By Paul Roberts

4. When to Rob a Bank:…And 131 More Warped Suggestions and Well-Intended Rants
By Steven B. Levitt & Stephen J. Dubner (the authors of Freakonomics)

5. All the President’s Bankers: The Hidden Alliances That Drive American Power
By Nomi Prins

6. It Takes A Pillage: Behind the Bailouts, Bonuses and Backroom Deals from Washington to Wall Street
By Nomi Prins

7. The End of Normal: The Great Crisis and the Future of Growth
By James K. Galbraith

8. In Defense of a Liberal Education
By Fareed Zakaria

9. Where You Go Is Not Who You’ll Be: An Antidote to the College Admissions Mania
By Frank Bruni

10. The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History
By Elizabeth Kolbert

11. The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon
By Brad Stone

12. The Last Lion: Winston Spencer Churchill: Defender of the Realm, 1940-1965
By William Manchester

13. Still Foolin’Em: Where I’ve Been, Where I ‘m Going, and Where the Hell Are My Keys?
By Billy Crystal

AVB-AMG

Update as of June 1

One Less Car - Bicycling and the Politics of Automobility, by Zack Furness.

Various Tuscany guidebooks. Currently in Castellina in Chianti, headed for Montalcino. Time to read up on Brunello again.