Books! How do you read and what do you read?

Finished “Brother and Sister”. By Joanne Trollope. One of her better ones. Realistic, well-handled conflict and resolution
 

The Clergyman's Wife by Molly Greeley.
About a respectable wife of a vicar,, who sees her duties by rote.
Makes the acquaintance of local farmer,, realizes the difference between him & her husband.
Brings to mind how much our values of love & marriage have changed.

The New Iberia Blues by James Lee Burke
Another Dave Robicheaux novel.
Seems his novels start off with murders ,, than sort of stray off course.
 

StarSong said:
I've been going down the rabbit hole of learning about the possibility of a nuclear detonated EMP (eltromagnetic pulse). First read "Lights Out" by Ted Koppel (non fiction explanation), as recommended by @AnnieA on another SF thread. Based on a mention in that book, I next read "One Second After" by John Matherson (an EMP post apocalyptic novel). He eventually turned it into part one of a trilogy, and I'm now into the second book, "One Year After".

Lots of food for thought in these books, particularly in the context of life over the past 18 months in the highly industrialized world, i.e., supply chain interruptions, hoarding, empty shelves, shortages in parts for repairs, crowded hospitals, ratcheting fuel prices, and so forth. Between those conditions and the extraordinary political divides, tempers are flaring and centuries-old rules of civility are being ignored.

These are a worthwhile read...
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StarSong,

Those are all good books for sure.

You might consider the following 2 X books - as they are similar :

1) Going Home by Angry American

2) Unintended Consequences by John Ross

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If you like just plain old pulp that is very good: Stuart M. Kaminsky is my very, very favorite.
17 novels about A Russian Detective-he has to find the bad guys while hampered by the KGB and not offend any high ranking communist
The cast of his fellow detectives is very good-great writer in his genre
I've read all twice, the good ones three, maybe 4 times in the last thirty years.
 
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Just finished This is Chance! The Shaking of an All-American City, A Voice that Held it Together by Jon Mooallem; about Genie Chance, a radio/TV announcer at at station in Anchorage, Alaska who was on the air hours after the 1964 earthquake; fascinating!
 
Just discovered the author Elizabeth Berg and her lovely, gentle stories I’ve read “Open House” and then when I found our library had quite a few of her titles, I went back and started with the original, “The Story of Arthur Truluv”. Looking forward to reading more 🥰😄🤓
 
CinnamonSugar said:
Just discovered the author Elizabeth Berg and her lovely, gentle stories I’ve read “Open House” and then when I found our library had quite a few of her titles, I went back and started with the original, “The Story of Arthur Truluv”. Looking forward to reading more 🥰😄🤓
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There are two sequels to The Story of Arthur Truluv. The first is Night of Miracles, and second is The Confession Club. I loved all three of them. Elizabeth Berg is one of my favorite authors.
 
I envy all of you that read so many books. Most of my reading these days is on forums such as this. For the past few years my attention level has dropped alarmingly, to the point where I can't even stay focused on a long magazine article. I used to read incessantly when I was younger and now I tend to just skim through anything longer than a paragraph. One would think that possibly my mental capabilities are slipping, but other than this reading affliction, I seem unimpaired! :rolleyes:
 
gamboolman said:
StarSong,

Those are all good books for sure.

You might consider the following 2 X books - as they are similar :

1) Going Home by Angry American

2) Unintended Consequences by John Ross

7N3J1GXl.png
zHIkN2jl.png
Click to expand...
Thanks for the recommendations. After reading the group I referred to in post #549 (some of which I mistakenly said were written by John Matherson. The author is William R. Forstchen and the protagonist is John Matherson), I read one more book by Forstchen, 48 hours. It's about a gigantic solar flare that would cause massive extinctions across the globe.

I read these over the course of 4-6 weeks, resting my psyche with lighter fare in between.

Seemingly unrelated, last week I was looking at my back-up pantry and realized it's recently become excessive. Took a full inventory. Eek! The stress of early pandemic shortages and these apocalyptic/post-apocalyptic books is showing up as food anxiety. My stash has grown well beyond a reasonable level (for a non-survivalist). DH & I could literally live for months from the pantry alone. I haven't yet had the courage to inventory the freezers, but it's on my list of things to do.

Anyone else having this issue from this type of reading material?
 
WheatenLover said:
There are two sequels to The Story of Arthur Truluv. The first is Night of Miracles, and second is The Confession Club. I loved all three of them. Elizabeth Berg is one of my favorite authors.
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I’m in the middle of “Night of Miracles” right now 😄. I’ll look for “Confession club” next. Thanks for the info !
 
I regularly read a broad range of non-fiction science especially natural sciences and technology both from books and from web sources. As an adult, never make time to read fiction much like over decades have allowed little time watching TV shows though understand why both can be entertaining. Just so little time. My career required reading ridiculous amounts of technology however am glad as a retired senior that I no longer have to do so thus recently tossed several dozen heavy books into the trash.

Have bought fair numbers of used books cheaply on amazon but the below is a new book I recently bought and read in about 4 days. I will highly recommend it for seniors as our often failing memories are on many of our minds. It covers summaries of current brain memory science research at a level anyone can comprehend with a fair amount of forgetful humor:

Remember: The Science of Memory and the Art of Forgetting by Lisa Genova

A bit off topic but will briefly mention in this Internet era if one is into educating oneself, there are often better ways than taking classes or reading books by using online E-learning, especially videos on Youtube. For complex science and technology subjects there is a significant advantage because complementary video graphics can often better represent concepts than mere words. And then there are free online lectures by world class university lecturers. The following example is a listing of 25 lectures on Human Behavioral Biology by Stanford professor Robert Saploski all free online.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL848F2368C90DDC3D

As an introduction, anyone will be entertained by lecture #14 on the Limbic System about human emotions:


The below is an example of a highly recommended used college introductory astronomy textbook that was over $100 new in 2006 that I bought used on amazon a decade ago for about $10 and read most at that time that I have currently been re-reading many chapters of this week. Of course that is the nature absorbing science by repeatedly re-reading. Many mid level science textbooks quickly drop in price as colleges tend to replace them with current newest books. As a textbook, its large pages 590 pages long, are full of awesome color explanatory photos of the universe including many from the Hubbel Space Telescope with many charts and diagrams and though now a wee dated, newer updates to theory can readily be found online.

Voyages to the Stars and Galaxies (third edition) by Andrew Fraknoi

Tomorrow will be a non-reading day, my birthday, as I drive up to San Francisco's touristy north shore for a day of fun.
 
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jerry old said:
If you like just plain old pulp that is very good: Stuart M. Kaminsky is my very, very favorite.
17 novels about A Russian Detective-he has to find the bad guys while hampered by the KGB and not offend any high ranking communist
The cast of his fellow detectives is very good-great writer in his genre
I've read all twice, the good ones three, maybe 4 times in the last thirty years.
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I have made note of this author. Thanks, Jerry.
 
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David777 said:
I regularly read a broad range of non-fiction science especially natural sciences and technology both from books and from web sources. As an adult, never make time to read fiction much like over decades have allowed little time watching TV shows though understand why both can be entertaining. Just so little time. My career required reading ridiculous amounts of technology however am glad as a retired senior that I no longer have to do so thus recently tossed several dozen heavy books into the trash.

Have bought fair numbers of used books cheaply on amazon but the below is a new book I recently bought and read in about 4 days. I will highly recommend it for seniors as our often failing memories are on many of our minds. It covers summaries of current brain memory science research at a level anyone can comprehend with a fair amount of forgetful humor:

Remember: The Science of Memory and the Art of Forgetting by Lisa Genova

A bit off topic but will briefly mention in this Internet era if one is into educating oneself, there are often better ways than taking classes or reading books by using online E-learning, especially videos on Youtube. For complex science and technology subjects there is a significant advantage because complementary video graphics can often better represent concepts than mere words. And then there are free online lectures by world class university lecturers. The following example is a listing of 25 lectures on Human Behavioral Biology by Stanford professor Robert Saploski all free online.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL848F2368C90DDC3D

As an introduction, anyone will be entertained by lecture #14 on the Limbic System about human emotions:


The below is an example of a highly recommended used college introductory astronomy textbook that was over $100 new in 2006 that I bought used on amazon a decade ago for about $10 and read most at that time that I have currently been re-reading many chapters of this week. Of course that is the nature absorbing science by repeatedly re-reading. Many mid level science textbooks quickly drop in price as colleges tend to replace them with current newest books. As a textbook, its large pages 590 pages long, are full of awesome color explanatory photos of the universe including many from the Hubbel Space Telescope with many charts and diagrams and though now a wee dated, newer updates to theory can readily be found online.

Voyages to the Stars and Galaxies (third edition) by Andrew Fraknoi

Tomorrow will be a non-reading day, my birthday, as I drive up to San Francisco's touristy north shore for a day of fun.
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All interesting books, David777! I also read technical books and use the Youtube videos a lot for learning. I've also used Coursera.org which is a learning platform.

Regarding your phrase "the complementary video graphics can often represent concepts better than mere words," don't underestimate the power of words. Actually, it's been written about that reading uses more of our brain than watching a video. With reading, we have to visualize everything. We have to do all the work. We also fill in where there are gaps. Whereas in watching videos, it's been done for us. Think about it. Just wanted to pass that on.

Also, Happy Birthday (for tomorrow) and enjoy your day!
 
I have recently read lots of books for my classes, but for my own reading, I like to learn as I read. It's been awhile since I read fiction, though.

I recently finished reading "The Art of Surveillance Capitalism" by Shoshona Runoff. It's a huge book but has a lot of material about technology and how we are losing our privacy without even being aware of it. She's done her homework. I loved it!

Another one that I recently read was by Thomas Sowell called "Discrimination and Disparities" and I love his philosophy and the way he writes.
 
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In Tasmania’s “Black War” of 1823–31, Tongerlongeter led a stunning resistance campaign against invading British soldiers and colonists. Leader of the Oyster Bay nation, he inspired dread throughout the island’s southeast. Convicts refused to work alone or unarmed, terrified settlers abandoned their farms, the economy faltered and the government seemed powerless to suppress the violence……https://theconversation.com/friday-...ghter-we-should-remember-as-a-war-hero-165308
 

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