posted by justincredible

Also curious, after watching The Death of Stalin last weekend, anyone read any good books on Stalin? There are two biographies from Simon Sebag Montefiore (Young Stalin and one other) that look good. Anyone read either of those? Boogie?

I haven't read any of them, but I know Stephen Kotkin has a trilogy of books coming out on Stalin.Two are out already. 

Stalin: Paradoxes of Power, 1878-1928

Stalin: Waiting for Hitler, 1929-1941 

Another one is from Oleg V. Khlevniuk, titled: Stalin: New Biography of a Dictator 

Thanks, I'll check these out.

I just  started Tiger Woods Jeff Benedict and Armen Keteyian.  Tiger's life story is very interesting to me.  It's both fantastic and sad at the same time.  I believe at his best (2000-2005 or so), he was better than anyone who's ever played the game and one of the greatest American athletes of modern times.  

Since my last check-in:

Finished Altered Carbon. Lots of differences from the tv series, but I enjoyed it. I will continue reading the trilogy.

Started Basic Economics by Thomas Sowell. GREAT free market economics primer written in plain English. It's a long book, but it's been great so far (about 20% in).

Started Dark Tower VI: Song of Susannah. Great book so far, with a pretty interesting plot twist. Looking forward to finishing up the series after the next book.

I recently finished the Dark Tower series, and it was a great ride.

I started Fall of Giants by Ken Follett this morning. From goodreads:

This is an epic of love, hatred, war and revolution. This is a huge novel that follows five families through the world-shaking dramas of the First World War, the Russian Revolution, and the struggle for votes for women.

posted by justincredible

I started Fall of Giants by Ken Follett this morning. From goodreads:

Really liked "Pillars of the Earth" from Follett, haven't gotten to anything else by him.

posted by iclfan2

Really liked "Pillars of the Earth" from Follett, haven't gotten to anything else by him.

If this series holds my interest I might add that one to the list. Both were recommended to me by a co-worker, the Centuries trilogy just seemed a little more interesting to me.

Finished Fall of Giants yesterday and started book #2 in the trilogy, Winter of the World. I highly recommend the series to anyone that likes history.

Yeah, I know...late to the party but I'm reading "Moneyball" right now for work.

Currently reading Evicted: https://www.amazon.com/Evicted-Poverty-Profit-American-City/dp/0553447459

I'm only 50 pages in, but I'm impressed with the author capturing both sides of the situations presented in the book. Landlord side and tenant side.

Finished up  "Beyond Glory: Joe Louis vs. Max Schmeling, and a World on the Brink" by David Margolick. It is a great book about the two Louis-Schmeling fights with a sprinkle of Cinderella Man thrown in. Books does a great job at diving into the racial aspects of the bouts as well as the looming war in Europe. Schmeling had a great case for him to be world champ after the first bout with Louis. 

I started the Ulysses S. Grant one-two recently. I've always had an appreciation for him, just never took the time to dig into the story. It will take some time as both are large books. I started Grant's memoir last week and then will follow it up with Ron Chernow's "Grant."

posted by Commander of Awesome

Currently reading Evicted: https://www.amazon.com/Evicted-Poverty-Profit-American-City/dp/0553447459

 

I'm only 50 pages in, but I'm impressed with the author capturing both sides of the situations presented in the book. Landlord side and tenant side.

Looks interesting. Let me know what your thoughts are when you finish.

posted by Commander of Awesome

Currently reading Evicted: https://www.amazon.com/Evicted-Poverty-Profit-American-City/dp/0553447459

 

I'm only 50 pages in, but I'm impressed with the author capturing both sides of the situations presented in the book. Landlord side and tenant side.

Yeah. I've heard of this book and seen several reports based on it. Look interesting for sure. 

Finished Winter of the World over lunch. Excellent book, with great lead in for the final book of the trilogy. Due to the material I need to take a break from the series for a few weeks. I think I am going to start in on The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson next. It will be my first real pure fantasy epic (3000+ page trilogy) so we'll see how I like it. I'm usually more into stuff that leans sci-fi, but this has been recommended by co-workers that I trust for book recommendations. I'm hoping to start it this week, and finish it on the beach next week if it keeps me interested enough to pack it for the trip. Otherwise I'll just be taking my kindle loaded up with some shorter books.

Finishing up Hidden Figures over the last few days. We had started the audiobook on our trip to Asheville a few months back but didn't get a chance to finish it.

I just started Shogun by James Clavell.  I have always wanted to read it, but it is lengthy and takes commitment.  I'm just getting started, but have high expectations.  

Did a lot of reading over vacation. I read a book called Bandwidth by Eliot Peper. It was a quick, entertaining enough read. It's part of a trilogy, I'll likely read the next book at some point.

I also started in on The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson. I'm a little over 62% in (625ish out of 1000 pages) and it's been fantastic. If you like fantasy, I highly recommend it.

I've been busy, but am about halfway through Grant's Memoirs. They are very detailed and good. If you like military history, his is a great first hand account of the Mexican and Civil Wars. Once I finish it, I'll move to the Ron Chernow epic. 

posted by justincredible

Looks interesting. Let me know what your thoughts are when you finish.

Forgot to update, finished this ~2 weeks ago. Interesting read, but fuck it's depressing. If interested in how shitty being poor is, I would recommend it.

posted by Commander of Awesome

Forgot to update, finished this ~2 weeks ago. Interesting read, but fuck it's depressing. If interested in how shitty being poor is, I would recommend it.

You recommend reading it or being poor? :)

anyone?

posted by justincredible

Did a lot of reading over vacation. I read a book called Bandwidth by Eliot Peper. It was a quick, entertaining enough read. It's part of a trilogy, I'll likely read the next book at some point.

I also started in on The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson. I'm a little over 62% in (625ish out of 1000 pages) and it's been fantastic. If you like fantasy, I highly recommend it.

I might have to look into the Sanderson stuff just to see how he is as a writer with his own properties, since I'm only familiar with him due to him finishing off Wheel of Time after Robert Jordan died. Speaking of hilariously long fantasy, Wheel of Time is 14 books long (with a 15th book that came out midway through the series being set as a prequel to introduce what two major characters were doing before the first book started) with all of them being between 700-1100 pages.

I've read a lot of fantasy and remember the "good ol' days" when guys like David Eddings would write 5-book series where each installment was about 300 pages. Between Wheel of Time, A Song of Ice and Fire and Malazan Book of the Fallen, I'm now so used to these books being 900 pages long with 500 important characters per book that I don't know if I can even still comprehend those shorter novels, lol.

posted by ptown_trojans_1

I've been busy, but am about halfway through Grant's Memoirs. They are very detailed and good.

Grant wrote that in his dying days to raise money for his family because he was broke. 

Taking another run at "Artemis" by Andy Weir. I started it months ago and got a few chapters in then kind of dropped off. I'd like to look into "The President is Missing" like vball10set mentioned.

posted by BRF

Grant wrote that in his dying days to raise money for his family because he was broke. 

Yeah, I knew that, which makes the attention to detail amazing. He goes to great lengths to break down the terrain of all the battlefields and troop movements.