What are you reading now?
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wrote on 13 Aug 2024, 14:24 last edited by
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The Coming of the Third Reich
The Third Reich in Power
The Third Reich at WarEvan’s trilogy is excellent historiography although as you say heavy reading. His style though flows well and therefore readable. I read it a couple of years ago. The parts dealing with Nazi racial theories, policies and acts of genocide because of their depressing nature, took a lot of effort to get through on my part.
wrote on 19 Aug 2024, 15:37 last edited by@Renauda said in What are you reading now?:
The Coming of the Third Reich
The Third Reich in Power
The Third Reich at WarEvan’s trilogy is excellent historiography although as you say heavy reading. His style though flows well and therefore readable. I read it a couple of years ago. The parts dealing with Nazi racial theories, policies and acts of genocide because of their depressing nature, took a lot of effort to get through on my part.
Just finished the first volume. It was quite "heavy". Very very well researched. I don't think that Adolf Hitler or the Nazis were mentioned until more than 1/3 through the book. I will take a break but will definitely want to try the #2 and #3 volumes.
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wrote on 20 Aug 2024, 19:00 last edited by
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800 pages of WWII naval history. Love it.
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wrote on 25 Aug 2024, 00:16 last edited by
Finished "Why We Sleep" as a re-read. Much better the 2nd time, and some things that were a blurry memory got firmly seated in my brain.
One of the things that Walker says in the intro is that you don't have to read in order - feel free to skip what doesn't interest you.
Highly recommended on my first read - and, on the 2nd.
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Finished "Why We Sleep" as a re-read. Much better the 2nd time, and some things that were a blurry memory got firmly seated in my brain.
One of the things that Walker says in the intro is that you don't have to read in order - feel free to skip what doesn't interest you.
Highly recommended on my first read - and, on the 2nd.
wrote on 25 Aug 2024, 14:27 last edited by@George-K Thanks George. I will have to try that one.
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wrote on 25 Aug 2024, 15:23 last edited by
I should add - when I first "read" Why We Sleep it was an audiobook. I sprung for the ebook version and found it much more satisfying. Remembered more, learned more.
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wrote on 2 Sept 2024, 23:52 last edited by
Picked it up this morning. The first book in the series was ... okay. Not gripping, and not really all that unusual other than the premise.
Halfway through.
I'll finish it, but I doubt I'll go for #3 (of 5) in the series.
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wrote on 10 Sept 2024, 00:31 last edited by
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wrote on 17 Sept 2024, 00:01 last edited by
Started this today...
If you thought Jackson Lamb was insufferable in the TV series, in the book...
I'm only a bit into it, but so far the TV series has been pretty faithful to the book. I'm enjoying it - a lot.
Supposedly, one of Herron's heroes is LeCarre. I can see a bit of LeCarre's style in this.
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wrote on 17 Sept 2024, 00:01 last edited by
@George-K said in What are you reading now?:
Waste of time. Even though it's a novella, don't bother.
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Picked it up this morning. The first book in the series was ... okay. Not gripping, and not really all that unusual other than the premise.
Halfway through.
I'll finish it, but I doubt I'll go for #3 (of 5) in the series.
wrote on 17 Sept 2024, 00:03 last edited by@George-K said in What are you reading now?:
Picked it up this morning. The first book in the series was ... okay. Not gripping, and not really all that unusual other than the premise.
Halfway through.
I'll finish it, but I doubt I'll go for #3 (of 5) in the series.
Finished book #4 yesterday - yawn.
This is the worst kind of book series. Each book, about 300 pages doesn't resolve anything by the end.
Rather than writing 6 mediocre 300-page books, just write one 1800 page book. Of course, no one would buy it.
I'll finish, just because I want to see how it ends.
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Started this today...
If you thought Jackson Lamb was insufferable in the TV series, in the book...
I'm only a bit into it, but so far the TV series has been pretty faithful to the book. I'm enjoying it - a lot.
Supposedly, one of Herron's heroes is LeCarre. I can see a bit of LeCarre's style in this.
wrote on 18 Sept 2024, 20:28 last edited by@George-K said in What are you reading now?:
Started this today...
If you thought Jackson Lamb was insufferable in the TV series, in the book...
Finished it this morning. The TV series was remarkably close to the book. The only difference was in the last 20 pages, where the hostage goes free in a way that's not depicted in the TV series.
Nevertheless, it's a ton of fun. It's an easy read and has a lot of "inside baseball" type of stuff that was there in the TV show, but not as clearly laid out.
Gonna do the next one next.
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wrote on 21 Sept 2024, 22:03 last edited by
Finished Slough House #2 - for those who have seen the TV show, this is the series which deals with the Russian sleeper agent ("Cicada") and a possible terror threat on London.
TV show was close to the book, for a while. Then, it went in a completely different direction. Actually a bit more satisfying.
Started book #5 of the "Lost Fleet" series. More of the same. I'll wade through this one and the next, just so I can see how the story ends.
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wrote on 26 Sept 2024, 13:26 last edited by
Started this the other day.
I really enjoyed the "Three Body Problem," but you really need to do the trilogy to get the entire story, with book #2, "The Dark Forest" being the strongest, IMO.
Anyhow, I'm about 10% into this, and it's a bit of a slog. I'll give it a bit more time, but I might bail.
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wrote on 12 Oct 2024, 13:46 last edited by
Wendell Floyd is an expatriate American living in an alternative version of 1950s Paris. In this world, the Nazi invasion of France failed, and Hitler was deposed by the German High Command. Without World War II, technology in this world has stagnated at 1930s levels, and Fascist political parties have gained power in France. Floyd is a part-time jazz musician whose career has stalled since his ex-girlfriend, Greta, left Paris to pursue a musical career touring with another jazz band. He and his band-mate André Custine earn a supplemental income working as private detectives. When the novel opens, Floyd and Custine are hired by a concerned landlord to investigate the death of one of his tenants. Blanchard, the landlord, is certain that the death of Susan White, which the Parisian police have written off as an accident, is murder. Floyd is not so certain, but he's willing to investigate.
In a scene seemingly from another novel, Verity Auger finds herself responsible when her archaeology dig beneath the frozen ruins of some far-flung future Paris results in the death of one of her students. During her trial she is caught up in political infighting, and maneuvered into accepting a high risk assignment, without knowing what it entails.
But when she is summoned on a mission to Mars by the top-secret security agency Contingencies, Auger is more than relieved to be exempt from her tribunal and the years of prison that she would otherwise have to face. However, when she is taken to a secret underground base on the Martian moon Phobos containing an ancient alien relic that opens a portal to a distant part of the galaxy, and told that she is to go through it, she begins to have second thoughts about continuing with her mission. Things get even more bizarre when she finds out that at the other end of the portal is an alternative-history version of Earth in the year 1959 – almost 300 years behind her present-day – and that she is to retrieve a tin of documents that was left behind by Susan White, an earlier agent sent to "Earth Two", who died under mysterious circumstances.
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Wendell Floyd is an expatriate American living in an alternative version of 1950s Paris. In this world, the Nazi invasion of France failed, and Hitler was deposed by the German High Command. Without World War II, technology in this world has stagnated at 1930s levels, and Fascist political parties have gained power in France. Floyd is a part-time jazz musician whose career has stalled since his ex-girlfriend, Greta, left Paris to pursue a musical career touring with another jazz band. He and his band-mate André Custine earn a supplemental income working as private detectives. When the novel opens, Floyd and Custine are hired by a concerned landlord to investigate the death of one of his tenants. Blanchard, the landlord, is certain that the death of Susan White, which the Parisian police have written off as an accident, is murder. Floyd is not so certain, but he's willing to investigate.
In a scene seemingly from another novel, Verity Auger finds herself responsible when her archaeology dig beneath the frozen ruins of some far-flung future Paris results in the death of one of her students. During her trial she is caught up in political infighting, and maneuvered into accepting a high risk assignment, without knowing what it entails.
But when she is summoned on a mission to Mars by the top-secret security agency Contingencies, Auger is more than relieved to be exempt from her tribunal and the years of prison that she would otherwise have to face. However, when she is taken to a secret underground base on the Martian moon Phobos containing an ancient alien relic that opens a portal to a distant part of the galaxy, and told that she is to go through it, she begins to have second thoughts about continuing with her mission. Things get even more bizarre when she finds out that at the other end of the portal is an alternative-history version of Earth in the year 1959 – almost 300 years behind her present-day – and that she is to retrieve a tin of documents that was left behind by Susan White, an earlier agent sent to "Earth Two", who died under mysterious circumstances.
wrote on 18 Oct 2024, 01:06 last edited by@George-K What did you think of the book? I kind of like alternate history scenario type books.
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T taiwan_girl referenced this topic on 18 Oct 2024, 01:41
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@George-K What did you think of the book? I kind of like alternate history scenario type books.
wrote on 18 Oct 2024, 02:43 last edited by@taiwan_girl like most of Reynolds stuff, it’s not a easy read, but the story is rich. I’m only about1/3 of the way thru.
Ir’s not really an “alternate history” so much as an “alternate world” story. A woman in the future is sent to investigate “E2” - Earth 2. E2 is set in Paris 1959 - that’s where the “alternate” stuff is. However, she and her fellow travelers are from E1 - the “real” earth. They don’t know if E2 is a parallel universe, a simulation, or what.
Engrossing. There are two stories at the same time, and they are just beginning to converge.
I love Reynolds stuff.
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wrote on 18 Oct 2024, 03:21 last edited by
I’m in the beginning of Woodwards war. Right now on Putin and plans for Ukraine. Lots of people thought he was bluffing because the idea was too crazy. Little did they know.
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wrote on 24 Oct 2024, 07:07 last edited by
Woodward book is fascinating. I’m going slow because I’m reading two other books concurrently. The WWII naval history (now on Leyte gulf) and a history of Assyria.
First half of Woodward was all Ukraine. Now it’s Middle East
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wrote on 24 Oct 2024, 13:13 last edited by kluurs
Also reading War. So far, Biden comes off pretty well in dealing with Ukraine with the exception of his famous gaffe where he went off script and seemed to suggest that a little intrusion might be OK. WTF!
