Just dawned on me that with all of the 'offical' thread's we have here, there is not a book related thread. This is a pretty learned group; I have to imagine there are plenty of books to discuss, both fiction and non-fiction.

While I enjoy non-fiction, I tend to gravitate towards fiction. Right now I am on a Jeffery Archer kick.

Halfway thru Kane and Abel, and then will do the follow up, The Prodigal Daughter. He is an amazing story teller, and I highly recommend the two books I referenced above, along with:
- As the Crow Flies
- The Forth Estate
- Not a Penny More Not a Penny Less
- Honor Among Thieves

I am currently reading The Rise and Fall of Ancient Egypt.

I like to alternate serious reading with brain mush. For mush I just read first two books of the John Carter on Mars series.

Some favorites from years past.

Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire

American Caesar

Salem's Lott

Dune (first book in the series only. The rest are crap.)

Origin of Species

And many others.

Just finished Robin Olds' story, "Fighter Pilot".
In addition to being a hero, interesting that he had very effective leadership and management skills.

I like fiction.

Re-reading Nelson DeMille's "The General's Daughter".

I don't read. Haven't in 20 years. When I used to, it was Michael Creighton and Stephen King that were my favorite. Read almost all of both of theirs. The Stand, Needful Things and It are are my favorites.

I received a Kindle for Christmas (Channuka?).

Since then, I have not bought a single book, nor have I made any of my previously habitual once or twice a month trips to the county library.

I use Amazon Prime's free lending library, and the county library's free digital lending service; I almost always have two or three books on the queue. I browse both services and download whatever I want to read. To date, I have not spent one penny on Kindle (or hard copy) book purchases.

Many of the classics are available to download and keep at no charge.

Another Good Thing is that whatever is in my current Kindle library is available to be read on any device; my Kindle, my wife's Kindle, and the Kindle apps on our iPhones, iPads, and Mac computers. Start reading on one device and if I open the same book on another device it will offer to catch me up by zooming to the latest page I read.

Particularly nice if I wind up waiting for an appointment; I can continue reading on the iPhone.

Pacific Crucible by Ian Toll, to be followed by The Conquering Tide by the same author. They are parts I and II of a three part new history of the Pacific war, and uses a lot of new scholarship, in the same way that Shattered Sword does for the battle of Midway, to more clearly explain the events of 1941 to 1945. It is much more nuanced about the Japanese side of things and less triumphalist in tone, but pulls no punches.

Very good stuff.

While I was typing my previous response, clayflingythingy posted and mentioned Salem's Lot. That was the first Stephen King book I ever read, I had never heard of him before that.

My demented wife (I say that fondly) was working second shift at FotoMat (remember those?) when we both read that book, and frequently did not get home until the wee hours.

One night, around 1 or 2 am, I was awakened by a tapping on the bedroom window. My wife had made a stop at a store and bought a set of "vampire teeth." There she was, outside the window, beckoning. Now, it is a well known fact that a vampire can not come into your house without an invitation. In my just-awakened state, with a mindset that was influenced by the book that I was reading, there was some genuine panic going on.

quote:

Originally posted by Warhorse:
I like fiction.

Re-reading Nelson DeMille's "The General's Daughter".

Have you read DeMille's Night Fall?

Highly recommend.

Just finished Killing The Rising Sun and about to start Newt's, Understanding Trump.

Yes, I have read Night Fall.

I like DeMille's character John Corey.

I like to read the latest efforts of Clive Cussler. The adventures of NUMA against the bad guys, and always with a treasure involved. Good light weight entertainment. Also the usual assortment of Robin Cook, James Patterson, and the rest of the purveyors of intrigueach and mystery.

Almost done with Game of Thrones (first book). I just downloaded Storm of Steel about World War I.

I just finished reading "A Higher Call", Adam Makos with Larry Alexander. A true story about a 8th Air Force bomber pilot and a German fighter pilot. Both of their tales of their time in the war and their encounter in the skies over Germany in December 1943 and their meeting many years later.

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

Wifey and I are currently reading (OK, I'm listening to her reading to me while traveling around in vehicles) to the remarkable story of Violet Jessop. https://www.amazon.com/dp/1574...wdo_t2_PTwrzb0AV1Z4F

She served on all 3 of the Olympic-class ocean liners of the White Star Line in the first decades of the 20th Century, and was on 2 of them for their last voyages.

She served as a stewardess aboard "Olympic" when it collided with "HMS Hawke", and was able to limp back into port without loss of life. Next she was aboard "Titanic" for its maiden voyage; I think you know how that went. Later she served aboard "Britannic", which had been converted into a hospital ship during the Great War, which later struck a sea mine and sank in 20 minutes in the Aegean Sea in 1916.

All-in-all, a truly remarkable story of a woman. Her life would make a great Hollyweird bio-pic. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Violet_Jessop

Just finished "Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds" and am starting on "The Foreign Policy of Hitler's Germany: Diplomatic Revolution in Europe, 1933-36"

quote:

Originally posted by RogueJSK:
Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

great book - eager to see how the movie is

Kurt Schlichter is a a political columnist for Townhall.com. A lot of members on the forum follow him. His posts are insightful, hard hitting, truthful, funny, and the bane of liberals everywhere.
Kurt has written several books,and he has two fiction books that really stand out. "People's Republic", and "Indian Country". Both books are about in the near future America has split into two countries. The United States of America, and the People's Republic of North America. One country is conservative, the other is liberal.
I just finished "Indian Country". They are along the lines of conservative military spy satire. Damn good reads. I'll stop there. Check them out.

https://www.amazon.com/Kurt-Schlichter/e/B009DYP6NU

Currently reading "Lies The Government Told You" by Judge Andrew P. Napolitano.

https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=n...2&crid=1E41SZI21REUV

I read about a book a week.

Currently in the middle of "Undaunted Courage" by Stephen Ambrose.

I love my Kindle Paperwhite.

Mike