What are you reading?

Two this week - just completed, a re-read of East of Chosin: Entrapment and Breakout in Korea 1950 by Roy Appleman...... dense, highly detailed recount of army's 31st RCT tragedy on the east side of the reservoir in Nov 27 - Dec. 2 1950 - the definitive work on it.

And started and about finished my first Anthony Trollope novel, The Warden.

Re-reading "Let'er Buck: A Story of the Passing of the Old West" by Charles Wellington Furlong

Re-reading "Scribbling the Cat" and "Don't Let's Go To The Dogs Tonight" by Alexandra Fuller.

I'm in a recreational fiction phase. In the past week or two I've read Wilbur Smith's "Triumph of the Sun," Daniel Silva's "The English Assassin," and the updated edition of Nelson DeMille's "Mayday." Current night-time read is Stephen Coonts' "The Disciple." Good story-tellers, all.

This is a little off topic, but my wife gave me a Kindle last year as a present and my reading has increased so much since then. It's just so convenient to browse books (you can get free previews), buy without going anywhere, and get exceptional discounts (about the most expensive in the best sellers are $9.99). I've read about twice as many books since I got it.

Great. So what book are you reading now?

I am reading "That Old Cape Magic" by Richard Russo. Author won the Pulitzer for his book "Empire Falls." Also read his "The Bridge of Sighs" earlier this month. I'm from Central New York State so he really hits home for me.

Almost finished with "Matterhorn" by Karl Marlantes.

1776 by David McCullough. It's a good read.

Great. So what book are you reading now?

Dark Watch by Clive Cussler and Jack Du Brul - I couldn't remember the co-author and had to chcek

I wish I could read a book, any of a number of books I have waiting for me, but I am in the midst of my dissertation and I dare not take any time away from that else I will most certainly fall behind. I have promised myself that I will read to my hearts content once I turn in my final document and complete my defense, but until then Barnes and Noble are unfortunately off limits.

Just finished The Shack by William P. Young -- Nice!

Currently working on "The Real George Washington," by Parry, Allison and Skosen AND "As Far As You Can Go Without a Passport," by Tom Bodett

"The No A**hole Rule: Building a Civilized Workplace and Surviving One That Isn't" by Robert Sutton.

State of Fear by the late Michael Crichton

The Stranger by Camus

Right now reading The Time-and-Materials Contract: the Time has come for a long, hard look - Vernon J. Edwards

I've never heard of the guy, but it's a pretty good read.

Just finished "His Excellency George Washington" by Joseph Ellis; I highly recommend it.

Started "Assassination Vacation" by Sarah Vowell, but got bored after 50 pages and laid it aside.

Nearly halfway through my long-term project of finishing "Les Miserables" by Victor Hugo in the original French (yep, all 1800 pages!)

One of the Spenser books by Robert Parker. The title doesn't matter. They're all fun to read.

If you had asked a couple of weeks ago it would have been Milton Cross' "Encyclopedia of the Great Composers." Timing is everything.

Ron,

We're not snobs. Spenser's great. Have you read any of Parker's westerns about the gunmen/lawmen Virgil Cole and Everett Hitch? Terrific.

My wife is a big fan of Parker and is sad because she is reading his last book now.

One of the books he wrote before he died just came out, and his last one is in editing now. The big mystery is whether we finally find out Spenser's first name.

Vern,

Not yet, but they're on my list. I try not to read more than 1 or 2 in a row from the same author. Some author's style gets stale and sounding the same, and it ruins some of the pleasure. Parker can get that way, so I need some variety. Before Parker it was a Carl Hiaison book, and a Nelson DeMille before that.

Most of my pleasure reading is before going to bed, and I only last about 3-4 pages. Then the next night I have to reread the last page, so I'm only advancing at about 2-3 pages per night. That makes it hard to finish a paid-by-the-word book.

Just finished "Name of the Wind" by Patrick Rothfus and "Dragon" by Stephen Brust. About to start the Emperor trilogy by Conn Iggulden (I read the first two Genghis Khan books but haven't read the third "Empire of Silver").

The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein, Seattle author, and since I just moved to Seattle and started commuting via bus I have a great opportunity to read again. I'd almost forgotten how since having kids. Great read!

I just finished Lord of the Flies by William Golding. I think I want to re-read it (again). There's just so much going on there.

I just started reading "Blood Meridian", which was recommended on some government contracting blog.

What happened to the author's typewriter? Did the quotation mark keys break off?

Blood Meridian is one of my favorite books. It's Cormac McCarthy's masterpiece. The description of the Comanche attack is one of the most fabulous pieces of English prose ever written. Stick with it. It's odd, but you'll get used to that. It's a grim story, however, based on true events. Wait 'til you get to the tree of dead babies. The ending is terrifying and mysterious. Get ready for The Judge.

An iBook sample of The Great Deluge by Douglas Brinkley about Hurricane Katrina. Think I will purchase the full version.

Fall of Giants by Ken Follett on my Kindle, but haven't really dug into yet -- I don't feel invested - need to sit down and read more.

I just finished "Surface Detail" by Iain M. Banks. Wow.

For those who don't know, Iain Banks is a Scottish author who writes fiction. In 2008 he was named one of the 50 greatest British writers since 1945 and his works (e.g., The Wasp Factory) have won him several awards. He also writes science fiction under "Iain M. Banks" and, again, he is considered a master of that genre.

I wouldn't say "Surface Detail" would be for everbody, particularly if you are not into SF or haven't read a Banks novel before. But it's the kind of book that has stuck with me after I've finished, as I try to tease out meaning and detail from his complex and ambitious story. It's one of the few SF books I would say is of literary quality, worth studying and analyzing and maybe writing a college-level paper or two about. (Since my college days are long behind me, that's not likely to happen....)

If I've intrigued you but you want to start somewhere else, Google Iain Banks or visit Amazon and check out "Player of Games" or "Use of Weapons" as a good starting point into his series of Culture SF novels. I highly recommend his work.

Help:

FYI -- I just bought The Player of Games at your recommendation.

Vern

Help:

FYI -- I just bought The Player of Games at your recommendation.

Vern

Vern, thanks for the vote of confidence. I trust you won't be disappointed.

Those That Mattered by Barbara Angle.

By a friend I haven't seen in over 30 years.

More Guns, Less Crime by John Lott, Jr.

VERY interesting and should be a must read for anyone who wants to have an intelligent discussion about gun control.

Finished "Blood Meridian" a couple of weeks ago. Grim, very grim. But I consider my reading experience to be broader because of it.

The Siege of Vienna: The Last Great Trial Between Cross & Crescent by John Stoye. If you enjoy history you will love this one...

REBELLION OF THE HANGED by B. Traven

The Coming of Age, by Simone de Beauvoir

Post War: A History of Europe Since 1945 by Tony Judt.

and recently finished. The Great Hunger: Ireland 1845-1849 by Cecil Woodham-Smith.

You're in charge - Now What? Thomas J. Neff & James M. Citrin

Great book for Managers, VPs and C-levels starting at new company.

Hot To Cook Husbands - Worthington & Avilla. Great Read for the about to wed.

"Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell" - by Susanna Clarke. Victorian era fiction about magic. Though I am listening to it in the car. And I think I am glad that I am listening; I am not so sure I would have stuck with this by reading it. Slowly but surely it is catching my interest. Did the same with "The Historian". Really am enjoying having a book to listen to on the drive home. I am actually reading "The Merlot Murders" by Ellen Crosby.

The Zombie Survival Guide: Complete Protection from the Living Dead by Max Brooks. Skip this one at your peril.

The Zombie Survival Guide: Complete Protection from the Living Dead by Max Brooks. Skip this one at your peril.

ANNIHILATION: How to Deal with people who must have the last word - M.C. Yekcih. This is a must read for WIFCON participants.

The Nature of Explanation, by Peter Achinstein.

Table of Contents:

1. Introduction

2. Explaining

3. What Is An Explanation?

4. The Evaluation of Explanations

5. Can There Be A Model of Scientific Explanation?

6. The Causal Relation

7. Causal Explanation

8. Functional Explanation

9. The Limits of Explanation

10. Evidence and Explanation

11. Evidence: Additional Topics

Think justification for other than full and open competition. Think debriefing. Think prenegotiation objectives. Think price negotiation memorandum. Think source selection memorandum. Think COs final decision. Think determination to do or not do this or that.

Worthwhile professional reading for anyone who wants to think deeply about an important topic.

Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand

"The Nature of Explanation"??? I think I'll wait for the movie to come out.

Just finished "Lau's Laws on Hitting: The Art of Hitting .400 for the Next Generation"

An EXCELLENT book for anyone who has kids in little league or above, or who still try to play the great game of baseball themselves (although my knees aren't up to catching like they used to be). I'm also feeling my age because I read the original book by Charlie Lau (The Art of Hitting .300) back when I was a little leaguer, and now I read this book by his son and have had both my boys read it as well.

Just staring "Horse Soldier" by Doug Stanton. I read his book "In Harm's Way," which was excellent, and I'm told this book is as well.

Mike

"The Nature of Explanation"??? I think I'll wait for the movie to come out.

Try Forms of Explanation, by Alan G. Garfinkel. It's shorter.

But if it's entertainment you want, try Who Goes There?, an old (1938) science fiction novella by John W. Campbell. Scientists are trapped in an Antarctic research station with a very unpleasant visitor. Very suspenseful and unnerving.

The story was the inspiration for the movies "The Thing From Another World" (1951), and "The Thing" (1982). It also inspired "Alien". A remake (prequel) entitled, "The Thing," is due for release later this year. (The heroine is supposedly modeled on the Ripley character in "Alien.") Of the two earlier "Thing" movies, the first is a lot of fun, with some great lines ("What if it can read minds?" "If it can, it's gonna be real mad when it gets to me.") ("Warn the world! Watch the skies! Keep watching the skies!") ("You can't destroy it! Think what it means to the world!" "I'm not working for the world, I'm working for the Air Force.") and some fun thrills. The second is closer to the original story and occasionally very scary, violent, and gory, but has no real laughs and has an over-the-top ending that ruins it for me. In short, it's a typical John Carpenter film.

The novella is available for Kindle, iPad, Nook, etc. You can also get it in pdf at http://www.whogoesthere.info/download.php and at a number of other websites. I have long suspected that the original story might have been a metaphor for communist infiltration, but I haven't been able to confirm that.

Of course, you know who played The Thing in the 1951 version.

From alien vegetable to Marshall of Dodge City.

Just finished Ahead of the Curve by Philip Delves Broughton

I suggest this book an audio as the author's English accent made this book enjoyable; great listening for a commute.

Of course, you know who played The Thing in the 1951 version.

From alien vegetable to Marshall of Dodge City.

James Arness. He also starred in my other favorite "horror" movie: Them!

"Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs", dont remember the author, but great read.

The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable by Nassim Nicholas Taleb, 2007. No, this is not related to the movie. Taleb's other book on this topic is Fooled By Randomness and both are great.

In the 1960's, H. Peam Piper wrote a classic SF novel, "Little Fuzzy". Award-winning SF novelist John Scalzi has "rebooted" the novel and (with the permission of the Piper estate) just published it as "Fuzzy Nation". That's what I'm reading now.

Okay, what the heck, I'll see if I can get this interesting thread moving again.

I am currently reading Kissinger 1973, The Crucial Year by Alistair Horne. It is proving the be a thoroughly fascinating read about one of the most tumultuous years in American, and world history. I highly recommend it.

A World Undone: The Story of the Great War, 1914 - 1918, by G. L. Meyer.

George Orwell's 1984. Been so long that I couldn't remember if I'd ever read it in its entirety or just parts

Recently finished - Into the Silence: The Great War, Mallory and the Conquest of Everest, by Wade Davis.

One chapter subsection per night- Cibnic and Nash- Administration of Government Contracts

For Non Mental Stimulating Days- Jeffery Deaver- The Burning Wire

Principles of Economics by Mankiw. not by choice though

More Guns, Less Crime by John Lott, Jr. (3rd Edition)

An excellent statistical analysis of various gun laws, both restrictive and permissive, and their resultant impact on crime.

"Tabloid City" by Pete Hamill. A good novel about New York City and the newspapers. Just started his new novel "Forever".

"One Second After" by William R. Forstchen - Story about a Nuclear device detonated in the atmosphere above America causing and EMP and to failure of all electronic systems in the country. Interesting read and more than and little disturbing.

IP Board Documentation by Invisionpower.

"One Second After" by William R. Forstchen - Story about a Nuclear device detonated in the atmosphere above America causing and EMP and to failure of all electronic systems in the country. Interesting read and more than and little disturbing.

The premise of the book was disturbing considering that EMP is possibly the likeliest threat to us from any small country possessing a limited nuclear capability (i.e., Iran, North Korea). If you are intrigued by that kind of premise, here are a couple of more recent publications on that order:

77 Days in September, by Ray Gorham

Winterkill, by Gene Skilleg

Perhaps I'm too critical, but I give all three of these a "C," primarily because the character development is not very . . . mature. However, plot and premise are interesting in all.

As a fan of post-apocolyptic fiction, I'm currently re-reading an old favorite: Farnham's Freehold, by Heinlein. Nostalgia reading for one raised in the shadow of the Soviet nuclear threat.

CardinalChange,

I acutally finished 77 Days in September, yesterday. For whatever morbid reason I have long been a fan of post-apocalyptic/dystopian stories. "Survivors", by James Wesley Rawles is very good as well as is "Lights Out" by David Crawford(although very wordy).

Last month I read "The Hunger Games" Trilogy by Suzanne Collins. Although written for a teen audience, this is the best book(s) I have read in years.

I will have to check out the others you mentioned. Ever since I purchased a kindle my appetite for reading increased tenfold.

Read a "young adult" novel on the plane. The Fault in Our Stars, about two teens with cancer. Beautiful.

I just finished the third book in "The Breach" trilogy by Patrick Lee. A great mix of thriller and science fiction. Fast-moving, tense, interesting. If you are a fan of (old) Tom Clancy or Lee Child's "Reacher" stories and like a dash of futuristic ideas, then I recommend these to you.

Photographic Composition: A Visual Guide by Richard Zakia and David Page.

Great read for aspiring photographers. Does anybody have recommendations for photography?

I am reading the series "A song of Fire and Ice" better know to many as A Game of Thrones which is the first book. Just finished the second book, A Clash of Kings and have started the third book, A Storm of Swords. Excellent series so far.

Worth noting the HBO series, A Game of Thrones, is based upon the book and from what I have seen of season one follows the book very closely.

Just finished "Enough" by the legendary founder of Vanguard and proponent of passive investing, John Bogle.

Starting on "PeopleSmart: Developing Your Interpersonal Intelligence" by Melvin Silberman

I also picked up "50 Self-Help Classics" by Tom Butler-Bowdon and have been reading through about 5 books/night

As you can tell - I'm a fan of the self-help books!

I am reading Out of the Rain by Debbie Macomber, a fiction book.

"Embers of War: The Fall of An Empire and the Making of America's Vietnam," by Fredrik Logevall.

"Orwell: The Authorised Biography" by Michael Shelden.

Just finished the first Spenser book of the post-Parker era, "Lullaby." Robert Parker died last year, but Spenser will live on in authorised books by another author. It was actually very faithful to the style and tone of the series, even, if I dare say so, better than Parker was doing in his last few books. I got the impression that he was dialing it in towards the end, and this book was a refreshing rejuvenation of the series.

Julia Childs, "Mastering the Art of French Cooking," Volume I, pp. 399 - 404. I'm going to make cassoulet de porc et de mouton (et de saucisse et de canard) this weekend to welcome the arrival of autumn weather. My wife is on call in case I get in trouble, but I'm determined to do it myself. It will take three days. (I can do this.)

Negotiation by Lewicki, Barry, Saunders

The Rules of the Game: Jutland and British Naval Command

by Andrew Gordon.

After re-reading some books on the battle, most recently Castles of Steel; Britain, Germany, and the Winning of the Great War at Sea, by Robert Massie, Gordon's work goes deeply vertical into the cultural underpinnings.

Don't Hate Running - A novel by Lawrrence Rodriguez - - My wife's cousin wrote his first book, I finally get to read it as she is done, and even though I am not a runner, she was always chuckling while she was reading so I hope it is a book that I can't put down. A good laugh is always appreciated for an escape from contracting.

Just finished The Human Division by John Scalzi.

It is the continuing story started by Old Man's War -- a science fiction novel about the training and deployment of a future soldier (similar to Starship Troopers, for those who might know Heinlein). The catch is that all recruits must be at least 75 years old, and they must agree to leave Earth for their term of service and, instead of retiring after service, they get to colonize planets.

What I like about Scalzi is his breezy writing style and witty dialog. His characters generally are well-rounded and engaging.

Good stuff.

War & Peace, Tolstoy

Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness

Miracles and Massacres by Glenn Beck

Both for fun. The first is sheer fantasy and the second is true stories about moments in time that either changed history or something amazing occurred that changed the way the United States evolved. Good reads, both.