March 2Mar 2 I really liked this one. Reminded me in some ways of The Dog Stars mixed with a little bit of Station Eleven.
March 2Mar 2 I really liked this one. Reminded me in some ways of The Dog Stars mixed with a little bit of Station Eleven.absolutely loved the dog stars and hated station 11.
March 3Mar 3 I gave up on the Gotti wars about 8 hours in. Gleeson sucking his own dick about flipping Gravano, and then defending Gravano as a great witness was a bridge too far. The Earth is Weeping is pretty good, but it’s basically a doctorate thesis. Edited March 3Mar 3 by billfromlaketravis
March 3Mar 3 absolutely loved the dog stars and hated station 11. I think you would like I Cheerfully Refuse.
March 4Mar 4 On 2/27/2025 at 10:07 AM, jdhorn92 said: Forgot the cover picture The audiobook is fantastic because he's the narrator (for those that don't know he narrated Ken Burns' Civil War and Baseball).
March 5Mar 5 16 hours ago, SimonBolivar said: The audiobook is fantastic because he's the narrator (for those that don't know he narrated Ken Burns' Civil War and Baseball). Did not know they, Good to know. I enjoyed those series.
March 15Mar 15 Came across this one randomly. It's a book about through line between Cynthia Ann Parker's kidnap and rescue to Quanah Parker's life, to the making of The Searchers and the film's legacy. Alan Lemay write the novel The Searchers that was based on the kidnapping and search that eventually made its way to John Ford. Ethan(John Wayne) was based on one of Cynthia Ann's uncles. It's a really interesting read. A little dense here and there but very enjoyable. I didn't know this but the author stated that Buddy Holly saw the film with a friend and wrote That'll Be The Day right after. John Wayne utters that phrase 4x during the movie.
March 16Mar 16 Just finished this novella The depression of the 1930s led people to desperate measures to survive. The marathon dance craze, which flourished at that time, seemed a simple way for people to earn extra money dancing the hours away for cash, for weeks at a time. But the underside of that craze was filled with a competition and violence unknown to most ballrooms. Not great but pretty good. Ends smartly and abruptly. Sidney Pollack made a movie out of it in the 60s.
March 19Mar 19 I thought this was a great book. An amazing story of escaping slavery using the South's own rules of chivalry against it. Then parts of the nation conspired to send them back to slavery in order to "keep the peace".
March 20Mar 20 It was free from my library’s Libby app.It’s basically porn and golf, written by a woman. So so so cringey. But I really needed something mindless and stupid.
March 24Mar 24 Ignoring @safe sex's James recommendation a little longer. Reread Fahrenheit 451 in an afternoon because it had been about a decade. It really hits hard in the current political environment especaily if you replace TV with social media. Everyone knows that it wasn't really about book burning, but rather about the mindlessness of tv but I think the point of society choosing to be dystopian takes it to another level in 2025. The book itself was written so well in the first half, but you can Bradbury was better at short stories as it slowly loses steam as the plot thickens. I recommend going back to it if you haven't in decades. Last night I started and I got about halfway through it in a couple hours. I can already tell that I'm going to be reading a ton of his novels if they're as fun as his first book. Also continued my quest in rating all of the original 62 Goosebumps books. Last up was Say Cheese and Die! which always looked like a dumb premise to me, but it was decent. After 4 books we're at... 1.) Welcome to Dead House 2.) Say Cheese and Die! 3.) Stay Out of the Basement 4.) Monster Blood I have two more weeks of grad school left so hopefully this spring/summer will be a summer of reading for fun. Edited March 24Mar 24 by SimonBolivar
March 24Mar 24 Wife recommended I read this after my last book as a good follow-up and she was correct. About half way through and this is great. A really good take on the original source material that's told in a very unique manner.
March 25Mar 25 Finished this a few days ago And got to watch Sofia Coppola's film based on it Sunday afternoon. First time reading (okay, listening) to the book and first time watching the movie since it came out. I wouldn't want to like...live in that time, but to go back in time and experience one of Marie Antoinette's best days would be a hell of a trip. I certainly know more about the court of Louis XVI than I ever have before.
March 31Mar 31 On 3/24/2025 at 11:25 AM, SimonBolivar said: Ignoring @safe sex's James recommendation a little longer. Reread Fahrenheit 451 in an afternoon because it had been about a decade. It really hits hard in the current political environment especaily if you replace TV with social media. Everyone knows that it wasn't really about book burning, but rather about the mindlessness of tv but I think the point of society choosing to be dystopian takes it to another level in 2025. The book itself was written so well in the first half, but you can Bradbury was better at short stories as it slowly loses steam as the plot thickens. I recommend going back to it if you haven't in decades. Last night I started and I got about halfway through it in a couple hours. I can already tell that I'm going to be reading a ton of his novels if they're as fun as his first book. Also continued my quest in rating all of the original 62 Goosebumps books. Last up was Say Cheese and Die! which always looked like a dumb premise to me, but it was decent. After 4 books we're at... 1.) Welcome to Dead House 2.) Say Cheese and Die! 3.) Stay Out of the Basement 4.) Monster Blood I have two more weeks of grad school left so hopefully this spring/summer will be a summer of reading for fun. Read about half of le Carrè's books. Enjoyed all of them but The Spy Who Came In From The Cold is my favorite so far.
March 31Mar 31 On 3/2/2025 at 7:29 AM, wild_turkey said: I really liked this one. Reminded me in some ways of The Dog Stars mixed with a little bit of Station Eleven. Really enjoyed this one, thanks. Great vacation read, his prose is really great -- different without being annoying or pretentious. Going to read Peace Like A River next, I suppose.
March 31Mar 31 Enjoyed this. A lot of good stories directly from the bands. Edited March 31Mar 31 by 4th&Five
April 6Apr 6 Finished this one. I enjoy Shaara's style. And loved the civil war trilogy. The first 1/3 of the book dragged a bit but after that I flew through it. On to the 2nd book A Glorious Cause. Nobody spoil it for me. I hope we win.
April 7Apr 7 read this over the last few days. Zuckerberg is a gigantic piece of shit that has absolutely no morals. Only thing that drives his decisions are if it will lead to more engagement on Facebook. Also promised the Chinese inside info on Hong Kong and Taiwan people if they opened up china to Facebook then lied to congress about it. Refused to take down inflammatory posts in Myanmar that were causing riots because “hey lots of hits” I really enjoyed the book, lots of great stories and insight into the inner workings of facebook
April 7Apr 7 Pretty great read, but I don't think I'd call it the best story in the world. It's also a full Tolstoy that could be read in a day which is different. Edited April 7Apr 7 by SimonBolivar
April 10Apr 10 12 hours ago, billfromlaketravis said: Please suggest a page turner. My last several reads, I haven’t been able to get into. All by David McCloskey, former cia analyst, in order Damascus Station Moscow X Seventh Floor They are Spy thrillers. Here's the Damascus Station breakdown. It's NOT a romance book. he's probably the best new writer in this genre in the last 5+ years. Quote CIA case officer Sam Joseph is dispatched to Paris to recruit Syrian Palace official Mariam Haddad. The two fall into a forbidden relationship, which supercharges Haddad’s recruitment and creates unspeakable danger when they enter Damascus to find the man responsible for the disappearance of an American spy. But the cat and mouse chase for the killer soon leads to a trail of high-profile assassinations and the discovery of a dark secret at the heart of the Syrian regime, bringing the pair under the all-seeing eyes of Assad’s spy catcher, Ali Hassan, and his brother Rustum, the head of the feared Republican Guard. Set against the backdrop of a Syria pulsing with fear and rebellion, Damascus Station is a gripping thriller that offers a textured portrayal of espionage, love, loyalty, and betrayal in one of the most difficult CIA assignments on the planet. Edited April 10Apr 10 by NoName
April 11Apr 11 Picked this up at the library today. Never heard of the guy, but I love a good adventure into the wilderness.
April 16Apr 16 So, I found this book series on Kindle Unlimited by an English guy named Andy Maslen. It's the Gabriel Wolfe series of books. Wolfe is kind of your British ex-SAS Reacher-type guy, but there's some extra interest because of the English setting and also Hong Kong. So I finished the Wolfe Series and enjoyed them as light leisure reading. And started another series by the same author featuring an English female detective, who winds up doing a bunch of Reacher-type shit herself, not quite as extreme. Less extreme I suppose because she wasn't an SAS trooper and is a chick. But I'm not enjoying it as much. I don't know if this is latent sexism on my part, or maybe the author doesn't write women as well as men. I can't put my finger on it. The two series were written pretty contemporaneously, so I can't really attribute it to some development in the author's style. EDIT TO ADD: Before the Wolfe series, I read a three-book series by the same guy, also featuring an English cop, but male. But less of a badass than either the Wolfe guy or the female detective, more reliant on smarts than fighting ability. So it's not the sort of military vs. civilian milieu. Maybe I'm just a pig. Anyone have a similar experience? Edited April 16Apr 16 by TwiceHorn
April 20Apr 20 Almost finished with the newest Blake Crouch book. Just a fun little spring read. Definitely no depictions of anything that will haunt your fucking nightmares forever.
April 23Apr 23 I think you would like I Cheerfully Refuse.just finished it, and did indeed enjoy it quite a bit. thank you for the recommendation.
April 24Apr 24 On 3/4/2025 at 2:00 PM, SimonBolivar said: The audiobook is fantastic because he's the narrator (for those that don't know he narrated Ken Burns' Civil War and Baseball). His passing a few yrs back saddened me, seemed like a true gentleman scholar.
April 26Apr 26 About to finish The Queen's Gambit by Walter Tevis. This is the second book of his I've read and I really like his style and pace. Him being an alcoholic definitely comes through in his character development and it's heart breaking. The other book of his I've read is The Man Who Feel to Earth and it's wonderful yet intense. Haven't seen the screen adaptations for either.
April 27Apr 27 Started this one on a recommendation. So far so good. I know nothing about the time and place
May 4May 4 Finished a few things since the last post:And a couple of fiction:Road of Bones by Christopher GoldenAmerican Vampire Book 1 by Scott Snyder
May 6May 6 Needed something light so I picked up: and it's a silly, fun, quick read but I noticed that I could only keep my attention away from John Le Carre for so long and finished his 2nd boo, A Murder of Quality, in a few hours. His 3rd book is The Spy Who Came in from the Cold which I'm excited to pick up to shift away from a murder mystery and back into more spycraft.
May 8May 8 i spent a lot of time working in mississippi in my 20's and really enjoyed this. well researched and still a pretty easy read. read it before it's banned. /no cr
May 12May 12 On 11/9/2023 at 7:54 AM, The Original Greaser Bob said: Demon Copperhead (2022) (Audio) I'm glad I read it. I had read David Copperfield a few months ago, and considering the source material, this was a fantastic improvement, and I think an important piece of Americana. In other words, it worked mostly, if you like all that David Copperfield kind of crap. Seems like someone could turn this into a pretty good one season on Netflix kind of thing. Just finished it. Overall liked it, it reads at a dizzying pace at times. I felt like some of the story felt forced and fit too well. Could have been 100’pages less , but like you, I’m glad I read it. I can see why it won the Pulitzer.
May 12May 12 On 4/6/2025 at 12:17 PM, Post Oak said: Finished this one. I enjoy Shaara's style. And loved the civil war trilogy. The first 1/3 of the book dragged a bit but after that I flew through it. On to the 2nd book A Glorious Cause. Nobody spoil it for me. I hope we win. No doubt gets his inspiration and style from his father, Michael...Pulitzer Prize winning author of Killer Angels one of my favorite CW (Gettysburg specifically) books.
May 14May 14 Pulled these off the shelves (a few needed dusting off) and got my reading planned out for the next several months. Gonna give ancient history a break for a while.Throw in some fiction to keep things balanced.
May 14May 14 On 3/24/2025 at 11:17 PM, safe sex said: Finished this a few days ago And got to watch Sofia Coppola's film based on it Sunday afternoon. First time reading (okay, listening) to the book and first time watching the movie since it came out. I wouldn't want to like...live in that time, but to go back in time and experience one of Marie Antoinette's best days would be a hell of a trip. I certainly know more about the court of Louis XVI than I ever have before. If you are interested, PBS has been running season 2 of Marie Antoinette.
May 17May 17 23 minutes ago, randomhorn said: Started Daniel Silva's Gabriel Allon series. Finished books 1 & 2. Started 3 yesterday. I got hooked on these and have read them all. Silva puts out a new one every summer like clockwork. Edited May 17May 17 by TonyTexas
May 18May 18 The last couple of years I've started reading more poetry. Robert Frost is my favorite but I'm definitely a beginner. Got this for my birthday.
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