Books You've Read 2014 (1 Viewer)

[RobertR]

In the midst of reading the collected works of Larry Niven. Just finished some of the Gil Hamilton detective stories. Before that it was Lucifer's Hammer.

 

[DaveF]

What's the best Niven you've read so far? I've only read his collaborative story, "Footfall" and that was 20 years ago. I've been meaning to get a Niven book as one of my monthly Audible selections.

 

[David_B_K]

The two biggest secrets of WWII were the atomic bomb and the code-breaking of Ultra. We disclosed the first by dropping a pair of them. But Ultra wasn't declassified until about 1973. Any history of WWII written before then has to be examined in light of the Ultra disclosures. A good book on Ultra is Ultra Goes To War by Ronald Lewin. You won't know how close we came to losing WWII until you come to grips with Ultra's contribution.

I only know enough about Ultra to fill a paragraph. I think I shall give the Lewin book a try.Too bad Winston's WWI history is not a winner. I loved his 4-volume biography of the Duke of Marlborough.

 

[Northgun]

I'm currently reading Black Swan Theory by Taleb and I just finished It Didn't have to be this Way by Harry Veryser. Harry's book was amazing and was just recently selected as the omni-quest at Northwood University (the book every student is required to read). It is one of the best I've read on economics (and I've read a lot).

 

[atfree]

Just finished Daniel Silva's latest, "The Heist".

Currently reading Clive Cussler's new Fargo series entry "The Eye of Heaven".

Have also done my annual reading, in chronological order, of the Ian Fleming James Bond novels and Clive Cussler's latest Isaac Bell entry "The Bootlegger",

 

[DaveF]

I've read books three and four in the Iron Druid series, "Hammered" and "Tricked".
I re-read "The Giver", but haven't seen the movie yet.

I'm currently listening to Niven and Pournelle's "Mote in God's Eye"

 

[Elizabeth S]

I recently finished "Pandemic" by Scott Sigler, the last in the trilogy (following "Infected" and "Contagious") It was a bit slow to start but certainly picked up. "Infected" was so insanely good that it's hard to maintain for the follow-up novels, but I still enjoyed them.

I don't find much time to read nowadays, but another of my favorite series right now is Jonathan Maberry's Joe Ledger novels. I'm only up through "The King of Plagues".

 

[Stan]

I recently finished "Pandemic" by Scott Sigler, the last in the trilogy (following "Infected" and "Contagious") It was a bit slow to start but certainly picked up. "Infected" was so insanely good that it's hard to maintain for the follow-up novels, but I still enjoyed them.

I don't find much time to read nowadays, but another of my favorite series right now is Jonathan Maberry's Joe Ledger novels. I'm only up through "The King of Plagues".

Never even heard of Sigler until I read your post. Now off to Amazon to buy a few books. I love creepy stories like this, the reviews and things I've read are all very positive.

Thank you

 

[RobertR]

What's the best Niven you've read so far? I've only read his collaborative story, "Footfall" and that was 20 years ago. I've been meaning to get a Niven book as one of my monthly Audible selections.

Dave,

Try any of the books that are part of the Known Space series, especially Ringworld.

 

[Sam Posten]

Finally finished Wind through the keyhole and now on to 11/62. My King backlog WILL be summitted!

 

[DaveF]

Dave,

Try any of the books that are part of the Known Space series, especially Ringworld.

I listened to Ringworld and its sequel earlier this year. I really liked the first; the sequel was ok. I read Footfall in high school, and was very impressed back then. I'll look into the "Known Space" oeuvre.
I'm listening to Mote in God's Eye currently, and enjoying it. I don't read a lot of "real" sci-fi these days, and it's great getting back to the classics from time to time.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

Great thread!I just finished three books within the past week. Under The Skin - the book the Scarlett Johansson movie was based on. Very different from the movie, but equally enjoyable. I'd love to have seen the author's initial reaction to the film, I wonder if he recognized any of his own work in it. Up Till Now - William Shatner's autobiography from a few years ago. Entertaining and had some stories I hadn't heard, he doesn't talk much about Star Trek here since he's written other books on it. Gone Girl - was given this as a gift when it first came out and I just never picked it up. I finally did, and finished it in a day and a half. I didn't know anything at all about it going in, but I found it very easy to predict the twists and turns. It was a fun ride. I wonder how the David Fincher movie will be.

 

[DaveF]

Gone Girl was a great read. I stumbled on it, thanks to the EW recommendation in 2012. I'm hopeful the movie does it justice.

 

[frik]

Apparently the movie ends differently than the book does. No idea how, as I don't want to know beforehand, and obviously so far there are no details.

sk

 

[DavidJ]

David,I haven't found a standard history of WWI. Even Winston Churchill's The World Crisis isn't up to the quality of his later history of WWII. Alexander Solzhenitsyn's August 1914 is a good book but partially fiction: it covers the opening battles of the Eastern Front. The two biggest secrets of WWII were the atomic bomb and the code-breaking of Ultra. We disclosed the first by dropping a pair of them. But Ultra wasn't declassified until about 1973. Any history of WWII written before then has to be examined in light of the Ultra disclosures. A good book on Ultra is Ultra Goes To War by Ronald Lewin. You won't know how close we came to losing WWII until you come to grips with Ultra's contribution.

I'll have to check out the Lewin Ultra book. I've wanted to know more about it.

 

[Greg_S_H]

I reread Treasure Island earlier this year when Black Sails was airing. Fun fact: the RLS story has 100% less lesbian sex than Black Sails. Weird!

I read the first six Harry Potter books years ago and enjoyed them, but never got around to the seventh. As time went by, I knew my poor memory would rob the last book of any impact, so I just avoided it For some reason, I recently decided I wanted to read it, so I've started over at the beginning. I still love these books. Not only are they good stories, but Rowling tells them really well. Amazingly, I have had absolutely no spoilers about the seventh book, which I hope remains the case as I now close in on the end of the fourth. I will start on the fifth one tomorrow. It was always my favorite, though I remember it being kind of depressing for much of its (considerable) length. I'd search on "Order of the Phoenix" and "The Empire Strikes Back," as I'm sure the comparison has been made, but I am, again, afraid of those spoilers.

After this, maybe I'll move on to the Narnia books. Why haven't I read them before? That's Narnia business.

 

[Dennis Nicholls]

I just finished Sigmund Freud's last book Moses and Monotheism, published shortly before his death during WWII. Much of the book had been written early in the 1930s but Freud withheld publication due to concerns it would alienate the Catholic church in Austria. Freud thought the church would protect him against the Nazis but was disabused by the Anschluss, and later fled to England. His siblings all died in the camps. Freud himself died shortly thereafter of mouth cancer, probably caused by all those cigars he smoked.

Moses and Monotheism posits that Moses was not an Israelite at all, but rather an Egyptian nobleman who founded a monotheistic sect and was persecuted for it by the Egyptian powers that be. So Moses decided to run off with the Israelites and convert them to his belief system. Freud says this explains the tension between Moses and the Israelites, such as Moses coming down with the Ten Commandments and finding the polytheistic Israelites worshiping a golden calf. Freud explains that the Israelites finally murdered Moses which is why Moses never got to the promised land, a fact hushed up in the Bible.

The later half of the book is more difficult reading as Freud goes off into his theory of the mind to show his major thesis that belief in a god-creature is a form of mental illness. Since I have no background in Freudian theory I'm not certain that I understood all of his points. Still it is a very controversial book and probably up there at the top with Mark Twain's Letters From the Earth as controversial religious books.

I got a bound copy from the library but it's available here in electronic format:

https://archive.org/details/mosesandmonothei032233mbp

 

[David_B_K]

David,
I haven't found a standard history of WWI. Even Winston Churchill's The World Crisis isn't up to the quality of his later history of WWII. Alexander Solzhenitsyn's August 1914 is a good book but partially fiction: it covers the opening battles of the Eastern Front.

The two biggest secrets of WWII were the atomic bomb and the code-breaking of Ultra. We disclosed the first by dropping a pair of them. But Ultra wasn't declassified until about 1973. Any history of WWII written before then has to be examined in light of the Ultra disclosures. A good book on Ultra is Ultra Goes To War by Ronald Lewin. You won't know how close we came to losing WWII until you come to grips with Ultra's contribution.

After a few detours as I read a couple of theological works, I finally got around to reading Ultra Goes to War. It was much more fascinating than I thought it would be. I expected it to be a long explanation of how the Enigma machines and Bombes worked. Thankfully, it wasn't about that, because I don't think I would have ever understood it. It was really about what Ultra accomplished and how its information was put to use. You hit the nail on the head when you said any WW2 history written before 1972 is probably incomplete (unless it makes constant references to "secret sources") because Ultra touched on every aspect of the war.

After finishing Ultra, I was in the mood to start William Manchester's first volume on Winnie ~ Visions of Glory.

 

[Sam Posten]

Finished 11/22/63 and on to Doctor Sleep.

 

[frik]

Loved 11/22/63, liked Doctor Sleep.

sk

(That's me, not SK! )