• Welcome to BellGab.com Archive.
 

Reading Minds: The CoastGab Book Club

Started by PhantasticSanShiSan, October 23, 2008, 12:06:30 AM

Eddie Coyle

 
     Peter Levenda  "Sinister Forces, Book 3: The Manson Secret"
     Sean Willentz  "Bob Dylan in America" 
     HW Brands     "American Colossus: The Trimuph of Capitalism in America 1865-1900"
     David Willman "The Mirage Man: Bruce Ivins, The Anthrax Attacks and America's Rush to War"
      Rob Young "Electric Eden"
                                                                                             




CoastCanuck

I am currently reading 'The Terror Conspiracy Revisited' by Jim Marrs. 

SgtRocko

I'm back to zombie novels... my Kindle is going to bite me soon

coaster

I just finished Graham Hancock's 'Supernatural - meetings with the ancient teachers of mankind', and Rick Straussman's 'DMT The Spirit Molecule'

"Suddenly We Didn't Want to Die: Memoirs of a World War I Marine," by Elton E. Mackin

I've just started reading this book. Very captivating, it's going to be a good one.




Eddie Coyle

 
    "The Fence: A Police Cover-Up Along Boston's Racial Divide" by Dick Lehr
     "Arguably: Essays By Christopher Hitchens" by...duh
      "Dirty! Dirty! Dirty!" by Mike Edison (about Playboy/Penthouse/Hustler/Screw)

slipstream

How many people here use e-readers, and which one do you use?


   I have a Kindle (first gen) a family member gave me.  I find it handy for traveling, but I still like to hold a physical book in my hands.  I feel torn between the convenience of e-books, and actually having a physical book on the self.

Vatar

Judas Unchained By Peter F. Hamilton

It is the sequel to the space opera Pandora's Star.

The General

Jacques Pepin- "The Apprentice: my life in the kitchen"

Really interesting book about this guy.  He was Charles de Gaulle's personal chef.  I love his TV cooking shows. 

Frys Girl

Quote from: slipstream on December 13, 2011, 08:58:03 PM
How many people here use e-readers, and which one do you use?


   I have a Kindle (first gen) a family member gave me.  I find it handy for traveling, but I still like to hold a physical book in my hands.  I feel torn between the convenience of e-books, and actually having a physical book on the self.
I have a nook color. I love it! I had to stop buying physical books. I ran out of room on my shelves. However, I do miss physical books sometimes. When I do, I just go to the library. You can also borrow ebooks for your ereader.

slipstream

Quote from: Frys Girl on December 14, 2011, 03:34:09 PM
I have a nook color. I love it! I had to stop buying physical books. I ran out of room on my shelves. However, I do miss physical books sometimes. When I do, I just go to the library. You can also borrow ebooks for your ereader.


  Do your eyes get tired reading on the LCD screen, and if so, do you wish you'd bought a e-reader with and e-ink screen?

Quote from: slipstream on December 20, 2011, 04:08:03 AM

  Do your eyes get tired reading on the LCD screen, and if so, do you wish you'd bought a e-reader with and e-ink screen?

I'm trying to save up for a Kindle Fire.  Some time after the new year, I hope.  I like the "feel" of books, too--an old comfort I don't want to lose.  Anyway, the only bad thing I've heard about the Fire is the "ease" of ordering buttons that children apparently use.  My kids are old enough to "pay" for their own purchases.  :D 
Of course, maybe a laptop would be a better choice.  Dunno.......

aldousburbank

I have been very pleased, and disturbed by the "Sinister Forces" Peter Levenda trilogy, and also by Russ Baker's "Family Secrets".

My latest reading venture is "Empire of the Summer Moon: Quanah Parker and the Rise and Fall of the Comanches, the Most Powerful Indian Tribe in American History" by S.C. Gwynne.
http://www.amazon.com/Empire-Summer-Moon-Comanches-Powerful/dp/1416591052
It's the straight, non-PC dope on American manifest destiny and the last bothersome tribal elements that stood in the way.  Quanah Parker has always been one of my American heroes (named one of my sons after him)- the story of the Bin Laden of his day, who was neither assassinated or gitmoed, but actually successfully integrated into territorial American culture.  Shorthand version of the story: The son of a kidnapped white woman and a Comanche warrior, Quanah did a lot of damage to Texan and Mexican pioneers, his people effectively keeping the Spanish from laying claim to the Great Plains.  Following his (near) death-bed conversion from killer to peyote prophet, his acquiescence to the Dawes Act essentially opened up the west to the new immigrants whose descendants many of us are.


Frys Girl

Quote from: slipstream on December 20, 2011, 04:08:03 AM

  Do your eyes get tired reading on the LCD screen, and if so, do you wish you'd bought a e-reader with and e-ink screen?
Sorry for not responding sooner. The display is great. No pain or strain.

slipstream

   I have always liked B&N.  I think they will remain competitive in the e-book market.  If I were to buy a new e-reader I would go with the Nook, because it supports the epub format.


Any good reads over the holidays, anyone?


I have a few but I'll have to post them another time.




For someone who considers themselves a geek I'm ashamed to admit I never read "The Hobbit" or "The Lord of the Rings" until this Christmas. I just finished "Return of the King" yesterday and I am super impressed. These are mind blowing, fantastic reads and I'm an idiot for putting off reading Tolkien's work for this long.

My next read is going to be "No Angel" by Jay Dobyns. I first heard of this guy during an interview with Ian on C2C and when a coworker gave me his copy I jumped at the chance.

Vatar

Quote from: slipstream on January 03, 2012, 05:31:24 AM
Any good reads over the holidays, anyone?

Star Wars: The Old Republic
Fatal Alliance
By: Sean Williams

It's not the worst EU novel I've ever read, the black fleet crisis trilogy comes to mind as a shining example of how not to write interesting novels.  There is decent character development, but the book contains about six unique and concurrent story lines, this is something that the great Timothy Zahn didn't attempt.  Over all the novel is worth reading but it's not very smooth and feels a bit rushed.

Avi

I have been reading the noir novels of Kelli Stanley. One series is set, as is customary, in 1940's San Francisco. It begins with City of Dragons. You will never guess whodunnit or why. The other series begins with Nox Dormienda, and is set in Roman Britain. Both are outstanding in historical detail (the author's website is quite fascinating; she has a Master's degree in Classics, btw).


BobGrau

Just started Off the road by Carolyn Cassady, wife of Neal. Utterly compelling. I'm even skipping cigarette breaks.


Vulhala

Just finished Neuromancer by William Gibson. Absolutely amazing.

BobGrau

Recently read Nancy Wake by Russel Bradon, true story of a French Resistance fighter during ww2; a brave lady, though I can't help remembering that her somewhat reckless actions got her husband tortured to death by the Gestapo. Never mind, he's barely mentioned in the book.

Now reading I, Partridge by Steve Coogan and others less famous.
It's the fictional biography of Alan Partridge - a sad, lonely, crass radio personality who... hey, wait a minute...

Just read the comic adaptation of The Forever War by Joe Haldeman. Wow!!

Eddie Coyle

 
        It's a depressing enough season...so some "light" reading the past few weeks, music biographies are a decent escape.
          Daniel Okrent, "Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition"
          Michael Largo, "God's Lunatics..."
          Graeme Thomson "Complicated Shadows:The Life and Music of Elvis Costello"
          Trevor Dann "Darkest than the Deepest Sea: The Search for Nick Drake"
          Patrick Humpries "Richard Thompson: The Biography"
          Joel McIver  "The Bloody Reign of Slayer"
          Glenn Hughes w/Joel McIver "Glenn Hughes:The Autobiography.."






Jasmine

Hi everyone,

I thought I'd start this book thread (if it's been done before - apologies - I didn't search the archives!) and see what everyone is reading out there. What author has captured your attention? What books have you read that you simply couldn't put down? What characters resonated with you? Who did you empathize with? Who appalled, disturbed, and angered you to no end? What book made you laugh, cry, or simply ponder?

"Who were our ancestors? Who am I?"

Anyway, I read quite a bit (time permitting) and this is one fascinating, haunting, and profoundly moving book that I finally got around to - Michael Ignatieff's The Russian Album.  Of all Michael Ignatieff's books, this one reached deep into my soul, as it dealt with a theme I and everyone can identify with on the deepest level - family. It's one piercing piece of work.

                                               

The Russian Album is a deeply personal, intense, melancholic account of the personal history, trials and tribulations of an extraordinary family, the Ignatieff clan, and a detailed history of that family's deep, intense connection with the Russian Imperial court during the era of the Czars. We step into a literary time machine and travel back to the family's roots and witness events, both positive and horrific, and how these incidents altered and shaped the life courses of not only the ones living during that particular time, but as well altered the lives of their future descendants - decades later. It is a deeply personal look into the life of the Ignatieff family in Russia as well as their escape after the 1917 revolution; their brief stays and experiences in both London and Paris, and their eventual journey to and settling in Canada.

Michael Ignatieff uses family photographs and excerpts from family diaries and letters to provide us with a taste of the life that his ancestors lived, but while The Russian Album  brilliantly captures the golden and gilded court of Czarist Russia, it is more importantly a tome devoted to family ties - love etched deep into the bone and blood - the familial ties that bind through the course of generations. Love, laughter, pain, and the whole damn thing. For me, one of the most touching moments of the book focuses on Ignatieff's conversation with his grandfather's remaining sons about their long deceased mother and father and their memories of them, altered and re-dressed courtesy of the ensuing years, changes of heart, and perpetual grief.

The first chapter of The Russian Album contains an extremely wistful, sad, and ultimately haunting description of old family photographs - the occupants of said photos being long gone from this earth - and the questions their descendants have about the voiceless faces who share their DNA and stare out at them from the faded black and white film. Smiles and grimaces and lives and loves and hopes and realized and unfulfilled dreams, forever frozen in time. We may know tidbits of their persona based on family legends and stories passed from generation to generation, but in truth we cannot fully grasp and comprehend who these people - the blood that courses through our veins; this blood of ours that lived and walked this earth long before we did - really were. We'll never know them, and as a result there will always remain unanswered questions about ourselves and who we are. It's our loss, and it's an incredibly moving and thought-provoking piece of writing.

Anyway, this is one that I just finished. I highly recommend it. Next, I'm re-visiting Thomas Hardy's Far from the Madding Crowd.

What are YOU reading?

Powered by SMFPacks Menu Editor Mod