What are you reading now?

Just finished Douglas Preston's Extinction and liked it.  I like some his books (and some of the ones the ones co-written with Childs) but not all. Don't much care for his Pendergast books. Extinction: think Jurassic Park with mammals.  An older book of his (theirs?  Can't remember) that I liked was Riptide, loosely based on the now well known Oak Island story, but written long before the TV series.  Yeah, I follow the series because I read the same Readers' Digest story that the brothers did, way back when I was in college, which dates me pretty well.

Kreb (Forum Supporter) said:

Reading Till we are lost, one of the Bobiverse series by Dennis Taylor. Good fun, and it got me thinking of what a good fundamental scenario the series presents. If you've got an endearing protagonist, why not have a handful of replicants just like him, but diverging according to their experiences? It's perfect for maintaining multiple storylines. 

I was enjoying these, but the one before this one (Heaven's river?) got really long.  I made it through, but kinda lost interest.  Does this one get back to what 1-3 felt like?

In reply to TravisTheHuman :

Funny you should say that. I had the exact same experience. Finished Heavens River and walked away for a couple of years. This one starts a little slow, but warms up nicely. 

All the Light We Cannot See.

Highly recommended.

I'm just finishing "A City on Mars" which is an exhaustive exploration of both the feasibility and wisdom of space exploration.   It does not lack detail.

48, the Proxima trilogy. 

Sharpes Tiger

Duke said:

Duke said:

I picked up a general history of the Vietnam conflict...

The book is Vietnam: An Epic Tragedy 1945-1975 by Max Hastings. 

Nine or ten weeks later I am finally finished with this.  It was well worth reading, but quite long - it had to be.  But it filled a big gap in my knowledge of history, at the appropriate level of detail, which is what I wanted it for.

Just started The Rise And Fall Of D.O.D.O. by Neal Stephenson and Nicole Galland. Hopefully it moves quickly. I wasn't exactly up for another long book immediately, but it was what the library had among my usual sections.

Duke said:

In reply to Mustang50 :

I don't think you need to regret anything.

Starting whenever the French first set foot in-country, the entire situation was completely mishandled by everyone at the highest levels, including the Vietnamese themselves when they had a chance.

I'm not playing the old "just following orders" platitude here, but policy directs action, and politicians set the policies.

 

 

Amen, brother!

Followed up reading my friend's account of his time in Vietnam with an unapologetic autobiography by a veteran who is tired of vets being portrayed as traumatized victims.  He asserts that his best moments were while he was deployed in Iran and Afghanistan, and thoroughly enjoyed the excitement and camaraderie that came with being at war.  He credits those experiences with shaping him, helping him grow, and putting him among a fraternity of like-minded veterans.