What are you reading? (1 Viewer)

Highly recommend Charles Mackay's "Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds," incredibly relevant to data, facts and beliefs here in 2020 and published in.....wait for it.....1841. Plus ca change....

Also, "Red Notice" by Bill Browder, about his years first as an investor in a newly-opened Russia and now as a human rights crusader. All true, reads like a spy novel.

Right now I am reading "The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius," I'm not really a religious man, but I am Jesuit-trained so it seems like a good idea for the times.
 
OK...so I just got finished with Brandon Sanderson's fourth book of the Stormlight Archive "Rhythm of War".

I'm not going to get much into it because it will result in spoilers. But I will say, that it's not a perfect book but that it is a better book than Oathbringer. The pacing was much better and did not feel as long...even though it was longer, I believe. I still think that Way of Kings and Words of Radiance were stronger, but so much of that had to do with the setting/plot. Oathbringer serves as a bit of a pivot from the plot in the first two books.

There is one particular chapter in Rhythm of War that I think is the strongest chapter in the entire collection thus far, and honestly it is among one of my favorite book chapters of any book I have ever read. That chapter alone is worth reading the book. It was a chapter that was not only written for the story, but it was a chapter written for you and for me...for everyone...especially during these trying times. But I won't name the chapter because I suppose that could be a spoiler in a way.
 
So far this year I have read The Midnight Library (excellent--read this book), Amber Spyglass (last book of His Dark Materials trilogy), The Woman in Black (good, but a slow beginning), The Queen's Gambit (good with some differences from the TV series), and The Silent Patient (good book and a short read).

So far the only disappointment was Auschwitz Lullaby. It isn't bad, but I thought it should have had more of an emotional pull considering the subject.
 
I just finished Between Two Kingdoms which is a close examination of a cancer survivor's (Suleika Jaouad) life after cancer. I have just started Uncommon Type, a collection of short stories by Tom Hanks.

Just prior to Between Two Kingdoms I read the Bobiverse (sci-fi) trilogy (We Are Legion, For We Are Many, & All These Worlds) along with the follow-up of Heaven's River. I'm unsure what my next read will be.
 
"Enough Already, Time to End the War on Terror" - Scott Horton

"If you only read one book this year on America's unending 'War on Terror,' it should be this persuasive and devastatingly damning account of how the United States created the original al Qaeda terrorism threat by its own actions and then increased that threat by orders of magnitude by its wanton killings in one country after another in the name of 'counter-terrorism.' Once I started reading it, I couldn't stop!" --Daniel Ellsberg, Pentagon Papers whistleblower and author of The Doomsday Machine: Confessions of a Nuclear War Planner
 
"Enough Already, Time to End the War on Terror" - Scott Horton

"If you only read one book this year on America's unending 'War on Terror,' it should be this persuasive and devastatingly damning account of how the United States created the original al Qaeda terrorism threat by its own actions and then increased that threat by orders of magnitude by its wanton killings in one country after another in the name of 'counter-terrorism.' Once I started reading it, I couldn't stop!" --Daniel Ellsberg, Pentagon Papers whistleblower and author of The Doomsday Machine: Confessions of a Nuclear War Planner

But did you like it?
 
I reread CoD late last year. I got 3/4 through and realized I’m just not enjoying reading this. Put it down and moved on.

I typically alternate fiction and nonfiction. Currently reading:

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I have read several books on Stoicism. I will look into this one. I think many of us are natural stoics. When you read it, you are thinking “ yea, that’s how I have always thought of this but it’s nice to see it worded so well”
 
Winds of Winter

Yes, I am GRRM's editor.


Ok, fantasy over. I'm actually reading The Silmarillion. Very, very slowly. Probably about 1 page a week on average. Just can't get into it, but refuse to give up.
 
Winds of Winter

Yes, I am GRRM's editor.


Ok, fantasy over. I'm actually reading The Silmarillion. Very, very slowly. Probably about 1 page a week on average. Just can't get into it, but refuse to give up.

I'm a huge Tolkien fan, tried reading it about 15 years ago, I only got through about 100 pages, it was an exhausting read....
 
Winds of Winter

Yes, I am GRRM's editor.


Ok, fantasy over. I'm actually reading The Silmarillion. Very, very slowly. Probably about 1 page a week on average. Just can't get into it, but refuse to give up.
even the audiobook is painful.
 
Finished Tom Hank's Uncommon Type (some short stories). Quirky, well written. Started The President is Missing by James Patterson and Bill Clinton.
 

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