The story of Reggie Shaw, good kid who made a fatal error. He texted and drove. Thing about this book that makes it so compelling is the inclusion of the neuroscience of addiction and the stories of the different people involved from Reggie, to the families of the men killed, to the prosecutor, lawyers, and victim's advocate.
I started reading a sci-fi series by Neal Asher. It's pretty good space-based political space opera- not too heavy into the hard sci-fi arena. The first book is Gridlinked.
Just finished up tom stranger interdimensional insurance agent. 1 book left in the hard luck Hank series but I'm out of audible credits until the 22nd. Listening to podcasts until then lol
Currently about 90% of the way through REAMDE by Neal Stephenson. Since getting introduced to Cryptonomicon via this thread, I've been plowing my way through his stuff.
REAMDE is good - I like his narrative style, which helps when your average book is something like 800 pages. The story flows well enough but some of the coincidences and connections are pretty implausible, for something that is intended to be set in the real world.
I finally got around to finishing "Boom Town" a book about the history of OKC and as the writer (who is not an Okie) calls it, "The Great Minor City of America."
Learned a lot of really interesting history about OKC, good and bad, that I never knew. Very important member on the board of the NAACP, lived here, organized the different chapters in the state, started a black newspaper in 1915.
Clara Luper, a school teacher and unknown hero of the Civil Rights movement. She and a group of her students started sit-ins in drug stores and restaurants 1.5 years before they started in Greenville.
The gun fight in downtown OKC in 1904, between Officer Burnett and Edward O'Kelley (the man who killed the man who killed Jesse James) where the officer was barely able to escape being murdered by the outlaw.
Of course, talk abou the Murrah Building Bombing, the weather, the Land Run, the OKC Thunder, etc. Really interesting book.
https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/boom-town-is-oklahoma-city-the-great-minor-city-of-america
I've been reading Michael Chabon’s “Moonglow.”
I've been a fan of Chabon's other books--especially "The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay"--and while this one is not as fast or flat entertaining a read, the side trips it takes are long, detailed, and completely absorbing. Werner von Braun, or at least his legend and (mis)deeds, is a central character, so it's a timely book. I especially recommend it for anyone who marked the 50th anniversary of the moon landing with their own reminiscences of the Apollo program. Definitely puts it in a new light.
Margie
I've been tearing through bestsellers recently, which is generally outside my areas of interest, but I found a novel so compelling I literally could not put it down, much to the detriment of my other responsibilities.
https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Snipers-Honor/Stephen-Hunter/9781451640236
Fascinating historical WWII fiction. But don't just take my word for it.
http://californiascooterco.com/blog/?p=12938
In reply to 1988RedT2 :
I've got a feeling I read that at some point... I like Stephen Hunter and I think I've read most of his stuff.
In reply to stroker :
Funny thing lately is how I've been stumbling into WWII historical fiction quite by accident and finding the books very involving. My wife picked up the Stephen Hunter at a Goodwill store, and the book I read just before that was Wilbur Smith's "Courtney's War" which was another excellent fictional tale about the role of women in WWII. Quite the coincidence.
Just reading threads at this forum but was willing to read a good romantic manga but didn't find a decent one.
Marjorie Suddard said:I've been reading this:
I've been a fan of Chabon's other books--especially "The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay"--and while this one is not as fast or flat entertaining a read, the side trips it takes are long, detailed, and completely absorbing. Werner von Braun, or at least his legend and (mis)deeds, is a central character, so it's a timely book. I especially recommend it for anyone who marked the 50th anniversary of the moon landing with their own reminiscences of the Apollo program. Definitely puts it in a new light.
Margie
Did you mean to include a link? There's no title for the book.
Just finished Lords of the Sky: Fighter Pilots and Air Combat, from the Red Baron to the F-16 by Dan Hampton. It’s worth reading if you like history or airplanes, even if he does skip over the P-47.
In reply to Jerry From LA :
Yeah, had the book cover image but it kacked. Edited to include the title.
I posted something about re-reading "The Art of Racing in the Rain" recently, but it was relegated to the last post of the previous page of this thread, and thereby it went into oblivion. But since this movie was released today, I really believe it needs a discussion.
For me, I loved the book. I read it twice. Once in 2008 when it was published, and again this week because the movie was coming out. I shed more tears reading the book this time than last, probably because I'm older and weaker emotionally. (And I love dogs). But Garth Stein is an excellent writer, and knows intimately about road racing. So I love the book. I'm anxious to see the movie because I think Patrick Dempsey and Jeff Zwart did a great job directing. The trailer looked phenomal.
You will need a box of tissues, or a very large handkerchief.
Enzo: One more lap, Denny, one more lap. Faster! (Two barks). Many tears.
Read the book before you see the movie.
Has anybody read the book "How To" by XKCD author Randall Munroe? It's about using bad ideas to solve problems.
This blurb has me interested.
A concise Compendium of "The Warren Commission Report on the assassination of John F. Kennedy"
Four flights of stairs in under one minute...
Yep, I'm one of those. LOL
The book was published in '64 and I snagged it at the local antique shop for $1.
In reply to 1988RedT2 :
Alan Furst has some entertaining WW2 spy novels, I just finished a couple more over the summer. Now I’ve moved back to the cold war with Ike’s Spies. We could use more leaders with his sense of country and perspective.
So currently rereding World War Z (Such a great book, horrific movie) and Mary Shelley's Frankenstein at the same time. Read a few Heinlein and Asimov novels recently as well. Such a strange idea of what the future would bring from those two.
I'm re-reading James May's 20th Century, which I recently discovered languishing on my bottom bookshelf. I'm sure I read it before but I'm not sure when.
Entertaining pop-socio-history book from Captain Slow about the explosion of technology between the end of the 1800s and 1999. Worth a read.
Brett_Murphy said:Has anybody read the book "How To" by XKCD author Randall Munroe? It's about using bad ideas to solve problems.
This blurb has me interested.
I haven't yet, but very much enjoy the comic and his Thing Explainer book. For those not familiar, it's an attempt to explain complex things in simple terms, including a restricted vocabulary. Hence "Thing Explainer" as a title.
[russian canoe crime thriller, with essay assistance]
Edward Snowden’s “Permanent Record”.
Listening to American Kingpin, it covers the guy behind The Silk Road; a drug and anything else sales site on the dark web, and the attempts by law enforcement to stop it. Pretty interesting
Finished this one recently: 
Pretty ballsy group of dudes. A lot of them ended up dead or "guests of the North Vietnamese government".
Brett_Murphy said:Karacticus said:Just started the new Neal Stephenson novel, "Fall"
I'm a few hundred pages in, liking it so far.
I finished Fall a couple weeks ago... to a resounding 'mmmmmmm, okayyyy.' Like most Stephenson books it wound up somewhere completely different than where I assumed it would, but with this one I found the payoff to be definitely lacking. So many interesting questions half-set-up and then left completely unexplored. And the whole concept and handling of the interaction (and lack thereof) between the two worlds was just thin. His writing is enjoyable but I was left unsatisfied with this one. I find this review pretty accurate.
So far, I liked Cryptonomicon best, and enjoyed Anathem as well as Reamde. Snow Crash was pretty fun but owed too big a debt to William Gibson's Neuromancer, while missing the gritty dark side exploration that makes Gibson so good. I still want to read Seveneves, but I am a bit hesitant after digging all the way through Fall searching for pay dirt and not finding much.
As an antidote, I'm currently reading a couple of Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels. It doesn't matter which ones - they're all very good.
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