What was the last book you read or are reading?

Bretrick

Bretrick

Well-known Member
Location
Perth Western Australia
Introducing Marxism - The Theory of Social Change. Rupert Woodfin
Everywhere you look, the world is divided up into the haves and have-nots.
This is not an accident but is knitted into the very fabric of the system.
Eighty individuals hold as much wealth as the bottom half of the world's population - that's 3.5 Billion people.
 

The latest book downloaded to my kindle this month is.. Reasons to stay alive - Matt Haig ..but I read more than one book at a time, so I'm also re-reading the Mass Observation diaries from WW2 ''Our Hidden Lives''.. by Simon Garfield
 
Paths of Glory by Jeffrey Archer. This is a fictionalised account but based on a true story, of the ill fated attempt led by George Mallory to climb Mt.Everest .
Some of the story is extremely far fetched, but underneath it exposed issues like the class system and the desire for an English 'gentleman' to be the first to conquer Everest. There are interesting bits like the argument as to whether using oxygen was needed, or even 'unsporting'.

In the end Mallory was last seen 600ft from the summit. His body was found in 1999, but his climbing partner Sandy Irvine has never been found. Did he reach the top almost 30 years before Hillary and Tensing? The jury is still out.
 
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"Alone", and "Live to Tell", both by Lisa Gardner. I have come to respect the amount of background research that must be done to write such detailed stories.

I was never a fan of fiction .. but, I am now.
 
I just finished reading a book by Jodi Picoult, called “Second Glance”. It is a story about the paranormal, but based on eugenics that happened in Vermont (and other states) back around the 1920’s-1950’s, when it was made illegal.
The book goes into detail about why there were so many mental institutions built back in that time period. Some of them were huge buildings, which seem like they would not have been appropriate (or necessary) for the population of that time. However, the eugenics people decided that minorities like black people or native Americans , and just plain poor white people, were all mentally deficient, so the children were taken away, and many of the adults were forcibly incarcerated and sterilized at the mental institutions.

The story actually is about a young mother who died in 1932, when her child was born, and her ghost is seen on the property near where she died, apparently searching for the baby. The main character is a man who lost his wife to an auto accident, and he became a “ghost hunter” in the hopes of finding her again. Naturally, what he finds, is the ghost of the young mother who is searching for her baby.

It is a great story, and one that not only will keep you reading until the very last page, but also has a lot of interesting information about the eugenics doctors, and how the mental institutions were run back in those days. I definitely recommend this book !
 
I found a book in a box in the basement "And One to Grow On" by John Gould. I have a vague memory of my mother taking a liking to his works and that's probably where the book came from. In this book, Gould relates in a both humorous and poignant style some people he knew and experiences he had as a boy growing up in a Maine coastal town in the early 1900s. He has written about 30 books and there are about a dozen in the library system we have here. I have his "Tales From Rhapsody Home" on order. This is a synopsis of it:

https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/137097
 
The abridged Diaries of Tony Benn .. a British politician from the 50's through to the 90's

I actually read all of his diaries a few years ago.. and now I;m reading the abridged version ..it's a hefty Tome
 
Box is a favourite of mine too.

currently "reading" Ramages Trial by Dudley Pope, started late last night I.

I get through two or three books a week in audio book form as I can't see the read anymore
 
NorthernLight said:
My answer is always "some mystery novel." I'd rather read mystery short stories, but they're difficult to find.

I used to read a lot of nonfiction and how-to books. Now I have the Internet.
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Have you read "Consider Her Ways" by John Wyndham? The novella is listed as sci-fi, but it could be described as a mystery, too.
I first saw it on Alfred Hitchcock a couple of years ago, and checked to see which book it came from.
It's currently available on Amazon and Thriftbooks.com.

I don't generally go for mysteries or sci-fi, but this story is a real hair-raiser.
 
Right now, I am reading The General vs. The President. It's about MacArthur vs. Truman and a real eye opener. Even for this Korean War vet.
 
Bretrick said:
Introducing Marxism - The Theory of Social Change. Rupert Woodfin
Everywhere you look, the world is divided up into the haves and have-nots.
This is not an accident but is knitted into the very fabric of the system.
Eighty individuals hold as much wealth as the bottom half of the world's population - that's 3.5 Billion people.
Click to expand...
I've been looking into Marx's theories, also. We should have a discussion here on SF about his theories, perhaps based on Woodfin's book. It would be interesting. Of course, we'd need to keep politics out of it, but economic theories can be discussed without getting political, in theory, anyway. :ROFLMAO:
 
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