Author Topic: book recommendations  (Read 228949 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Offline Kat Kid

  • Global Moderator
  • Pak'r Élitaire
  • *****
  • Posts: 20436
    • View Profile
book recommendations
« Reply #2250 on: July 26, 2023, 07:12:12 AM »
I apologize for rough ridin' up this wonderful thread.

Just started “The Wages of Destruction”

https://www.amazon.com/Wages-Destruction-Making-Breaking-Economy/dp/0143113208

Offline Spaces

  • Pak'r Élitaire
  • ****
  • Posts: 3873
    • View Profile
Re: book recommendations
« Reply #2251 on: July 26, 2023, 12:47:21 PM »
Just used the Libby app to check out the audiobook of GRANT by Ron Chernow. Great stuff so far. Very good reader.
This is a very long audiobook. Just getting to the part where Grant and Lee are sending messages back and forth to decide on a place to meet for negotiations to end the war. Spine-tingling stuff. Grant is commanding the most powerful armed force in history up to this time, holding the fate of the United States in his hands and is totally at ease with it all. The narrator is very good. Has voices for all of the different people. Is really performing the biography more than just reading it.
I finally got to this on the Libby app (what a cool app!). Made it through 7 of the 48 hours and just got to the Civil War, but my hold on it expired. Very entertaining listen so far, I'll start it back up eventually.

Offline Cire

  • Pak'r Élitaire
  • ****
  • Posts: 19651
    • View Profile
Re: book recommendations
« Reply #2252 on: July 26, 2023, 03:27:32 PM »
Ron chernow is great if you like bios

Libby is awesome. I exclusively read/listen using it.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Offline Sandstone Outcropping

  • Pak'r Élitaire
  • ****
  • Posts: 8464
  • a punk who rarely ever took advice
    • View Profile
Re: book recommendations
« Reply #2253 on: August 09, 2023, 10:11:22 AM »
Has anyone else read _Civilizations_ by Laurent Binet? One of my coworkers got me started on it. It is a counterfactual history thing where the Incas obtain ironmaking technology from early Viking explorers and then fight off Columbus when he comes to colonize them. They take Columbus' ships and return to Europe and begin to conquer the Iberian peninsula by giving the people relief from the Inquisition. This is as far as I've gotten in the book. I've never gotten into alternative  history stuff (other than Confederates in the Attic) but this is pretty interesting.

Online Pete

  • Global Moderator
  • Pak'r Élitaire
  • *****
  • Posts: 29085
  • T-Shirt KSU Football Fan, Loves Lawrence and KU
    • View Profile
Re: book recommendations
« Reply #2254 on: August 09, 2023, 12:14:30 PM »
That sounds tempting

Offline Sandstone Outcropping

  • Pak'r Élitaire
  • ****
  • Posts: 8464
  • a punk who rarely ever took advice
    • View Profile
Re: book recommendations
« Reply #2255 on: August 14, 2023, 12:42:07 PM »
I guess Netflix is making _All the Light We Cannot See_ into a movie. It was a very good book. I enjoyed the way all of the different perspectives eventually converged on one place.

Offline Sandstone Outcropping

  • Pak'r Élitaire
  • ****
  • Posts: 8464
  • a punk who rarely ever took advice
    • View Profile
Re: book recommendations
« Reply #2256 on: August 30, 2023, 07:59:28 AM »
I'm in the middle of listening to the audiobook of _HHhH_ by Laurent Binet on Hoopla. A historical novel about the Czech resistance and the assassination of high-ranking Nazi Reinhard Heydrich in 1942. Unique novel with excellent narration. Would recommend. Only downside is that I'm having the occasional nightmare about Nazis again. Also, the amount of free content you can get with a library card these days is amazing.

Offline Cire

  • Pak'r Élitaire
  • ****
  • Posts: 19651
    • View Profile
book recommendations
« Reply #2257 on: August 30, 2023, 10:15:59 AM »
There’s a decent movie called Anthropoid or something on that topic. Cillain Murphy is in it.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Offline Sandstone Outcropping

  • Pak'r Élitaire
  • ****
  • Posts: 8464
  • a punk who rarely ever took advice
    • View Profile
Re: book recommendations
« Reply #2258 on: August 30, 2023, 11:55:05 AM »
There’s a decent movie called Anthropoid or something on that topic. Cillain Murphy is in it.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Yeah. It looks like the story has inspired several movies and docs over the years. Very interesting story and the operation was questioned a lot at the time and after the war because the Allied leaders outside of Czechoslovokia knew there was a high likelihood the assassination would provoke horrific reprisals (and it did).

Offline JaylenHouse

  • Fan
  • *
  • Posts: 5
    • View Profile
Re: book recommendations
« Reply #2259 on: December 27, 2023, 06:09:13 AM »
Totally get the hunt for a great read. Lately, I've been hooked on "The Night Circus" by Erin Morgenstern – enchanting stuff! Also, if you're into mystery, "Big Little Lies" by Liane Moriarty is a page-turner. I found them both at bookwormera.com. Happy reading, and let me know if you find any gems!
« Last Edit: January 01, 2024, 02:16:42 PM by JaylenHouse »

Offline Sandstone Outcropping

  • Pak'r Élitaire
  • ****
  • Posts: 8464
  • a punk who rarely ever took advice
    • View Profile
Re: book recommendations
« Reply #2260 on: December 28, 2023, 11:45:37 AM »
Has anyone read the Berlin Noir trilogy by Phillip Kerr? Very interesting historical detective fiction.
Just finished _The Other Side of Silence_ which is another detective novel / historical fiction in the Bernie Gunther series. Would recommend if you like WW2 or Cold War related fiction.

Offline Stupid Fitz

  • Pak'r Élitaire
  • ****
  • Posts: 4631
  • Go Cats
    • View Profile
Re: book recommendations
« Reply #2261 on: December 28, 2023, 08:55:14 PM »
Finished the Michael Lewis book on SBF and FTX. It was ok. You can tell he wrote most of it before the collapse and SBF getting arrested and then added/changed it. It was pretty interesting in parts. That was a really strange group of people.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Offline steve dave

  • Global Moderator
  • Pak'r Élitaire
  • *****
  • Posts: 85115
  • Romantic Fist Attachment
    • View Profile
Re: book recommendations
« Reply #2262 on: December 28, 2023, 09:17:06 PM »
Yeah, Lewis is cooked. So shitty that he rolled with that after the fact.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Offline DaBigTrain

  • Pak'r Élitaire
  • ****
  • Posts: 11594
  • stuxnet, meltdown, spectre, Bitcoin, ffChamp
    • View Profile
Re: book recommendations
« Reply #2263 on: December 30, 2023, 06:37:11 PM »
Just finished this book, it's this authors 3rd book and his first was The Bitcoin Standard, which is also excellent.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0BZQKFPLK/
"The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks"

https://blockstream.info/block/000000000019d6689c085ae165831e934ff763ae46a2a6c172b3f1b60a8ce26f

Online Pete

  • Global Moderator
  • Pak'r Élitaire
  • *****
  • Posts: 29085
  • T-Shirt KSU Football Fan, Loves Lawrence and KU
    • View Profile
Re: book recommendations
« Reply #2264 on: December 30, 2023, 06:56:00 PM »
Has anyone else read _Civilizations_ by Laurent Binet? One of my coworkers got me started on it. It is a counterfactual history thing where the Incas obtain ironmaking technology from early Viking explorers and then fight off Columbus when he comes to colonize them. They take Columbus' ships and return to Europe and begin to conquer the Iberian peninsula by giving the people relief from the Inquisition. This is as far as I've gotten in the book. I've never gotten into alternative  history stuff (other than Confederates in the Attic) but this is pretty interesting.

How'd this turn out?  Do you recommend?

Offline Sandstone Outcropping

  • Pak'r Élitaire
  • ****
  • Posts: 8464
  • a punk who rarely ever took advice
    • View Profile
Re: book recommendations
« Reply #2265 on: December 31, 2023, 09:00:10 AM »
Has anyone else read _Civilizations_ by Laurent Binet? One of my coworkers got me started on it. It is a counterfactual history thing where the Incas obtain ironmaking technology from early Viking explorers and then fight off Columbus when he comes to colonize them. They take Columbus' ships and return to Europe and begin to conquer the Iberian peninsula by giving the people relief from the Inquisition. This is as far as I've gotten in the book. I've never gotten into alternative  history stuff (other than Confederates in the Attic) but this is pretty interesting.

How'd this turn out?  Do you recommend?
I liked it a lot. Would recommend. Like I said above, I haven’t gotten into alternative history a lot in the past but I really enjoyed this. I liked _HHhH_ even more.

Offline 8manpick

  • Pak'r Élitaire
  • ****
  • Posts: 19129
  • A top quartile binger, poster, and friend
    • View Profile
Re: book recommendations
« Reply #2266 on: December 31, 2023, 01:08:51 PM »
Finished the Michael Lewis book on SBF and FTX. It was ok. You can tell he wrote most of it before the collapse and SBF getting arrested and then added/changed it. It was pretty interesting in parts. That was a really strange group of people.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I enjoyed it. Quick read. Would have been better had FTX just kept on rolling along I think.

Also just read The Gambler - Billy Walters. Another fun read, believe like 40% of it
:adios:

Online Pete

  • Global Moderator
  • Pak'r Élitaire
  • *****
  • Posts: 29085
  • T-Shirt KSU Football Fan, Loves Lawrence and KU
    • View Profile
Re: book recommendations
« Reply #2267 on: January 16, 2024, 08:20:53 AM »
Any of you guys fans of the Mongolian horde, like me?

Couple years ago my teenage son and I listed to this “hardcore history” series by Dan Carlin and it was tremendous.




Recently I finished the first book in this historical fiction series and it was the best historical fiction I have read, no doubt. 


Offline Spracne

  • Point Plank'r
  • Pak'r Élitaire
  • *
  • Posts: 20855
  • Scholar/Gentleman, But Super Earthy/Organic
    • View Profile
Re: book recommendations
« Reply #2268 on: January 16, 2024, 08:35:54 AM »
I do a really good Dan Carlin impersonation.

Online Pete

  • Global Moderator
  • Pak'r Élitaire
  • *****
  • Posts: 29085
  • T-Shirt KSU Football Fan, Loves Lawrence and KU
    • View Profile
Re: book recommendations
« Reply #2269 on: January 16, 2024, 08:53:31 AM »
I do a really good Dan Carlin impersonation.
His shouting when quoting is pretty LOL sometimes.  “THE HORDE RAPED THE BUTTHOLES AND THE EYE HOLES AND MOUTH HOLES, NO HOLES WERE SPARED!”

Offline Spracne

  • Point Plank'r
  • Pak'r Élitaire
  • *
  • Posts: 20855
  • Scholar/Gentleman, But Super Earthy/Organic
    • View Profile
Re: book recommendations
« Reply #2270 on: January 16, 2024, 08:58:06 AM »
I do a really good Dan Carlin impersonation.
His shouting when quoting is pretty LOL sometimes.  “THE HORDE RAPED THE BUTTHOLES AND THE EYE HOLES AND MOUTH HOLES, NO HOLES WERE SPARED!”

He always reads like he's oddly surprised, but also not all that enthused.

Offline Cire

  • Pak'r Élitaire
  • ****
  • Posts: 19651
    • View Profile
Re: book recommendations
« Reply #2271 on: January 17, 2024, 09:53:38 AM »
I do a really good Dan Carlin impersonation.
His shouting when quoting is pretty LOL sometimes.  “THE HORDE RAPED THE BUTTHOLES AND THE EYE HOLES AND MOUTH HOLES, NO HOLES WERE SPARED!”

Haha, perfect.

"THE HORDES CUT OFF SO MANY HEADS THAT THEY RAN OUT OF WAGONS TO PROVE TO THE GREAT KHAN THAT THE JOB HAD BEEN DONE.  SO THEY BEGAN CUTTING OFF THE EARS OF THE DEAD AND FILLED 10,000 WAGONS WITH THE EARS OF THE DEAD"

Offline mocat

  • Pak'r Élitaire
  • ****
  • Posts: 38989
    • View Profile
Re: book recommendations
« Reply #2272 on: January 17, 2024, 10:47:15 AM »
 :lol:

Offline Sandstone Outcropping

  • Pak'r Élitaire
  • ****
  • Posts: 8464
  • a punk who rarely ever took advice
    • View Profile
Re: book recommendations
« Reply #2273 on: January 26, 2024, 03:59:20 PM »
Has anyone read the Berlin Noir trilogy by Phillip Kerr? Very interesting historical detective fiction.
Just finished _The Other Side of Silence_ which is another detective novel / historical fiction in the Bernie Gunther series. Would recommend if you like WW2 or Cold War related fiction.
Just finished _The One From the Other_  audiobook performed by John Lee, also in the Bernie Gunther series. Incredibly bleak atmosphere. Probably my favorite in the Bernie Gunther series so far. Great listen while walking your dog in the fog on a January night.