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  1. In Memory of LAJ_FETT: Please share your remembrances and condolences HERE

Amph What book are you reading right now?

Discussion in 'Community' started by droideka27, Aug 31, 2005.

  1. Lord Gaos

    Lord Gaos Jedi Youngling star 1

    Registered:
    Nov 24, 2014
    Simultaneously reading two for some dumb reason:

    A Man on the Moon: The Voyages of the Apollo Astronauts by Andrew Chaikin
    An awesome account about the Apollo Space Program

    &

    The Guns at Last Light by Rick Atkinson
    The third book in Atkinson's Liberation Trilogy of the US Army during the Second World War. What I love about these books is that are meticulously researched, and while the author recounts the battles and victories in great detail, he pulls no punches in also writing about the trial, tribulations and mistakes on all levels made by the Army. This book starts at the lead up to D-Day. The other books in the trilogy are An Army at Dawn, detailing the lead-up and action during the African campaign and The Day of Battle, which recounts the campaigns in Sicily and mainland Italy. I highly recommend these to anyone with an interest in military history
     
  2. darth-calvin

    darth-calvin Jedi Grand Master star 2

    Registered:
    Dec 10, 2002
    Tried to get through the Cleric Quintet by Salvatore, but lost interest half way through the second book. Guess I'm done with my fantasy phase for now.

    Now I'm on to White Hurricane, a recounting of the 1913 November storm over the great lakes. A little boring at first with all the weather pattern lead-up crap, but really enjoying the ship wreck stuff.
     
  3. A Chorus of Disapproval

    A Chorus of Disapproval Head Admin & TV Screaming Service star 10 Staff Member Administrator

    Registered:
    Aug 19, 2003
    The Secret History of Wonder Woman (2014) by Jill Lepore. While it thoroughly covers the history of the character, it does so with its emphasis on how the character's creator was married to a staunch feminist while sharing their house with his other wife, the daughter and niece of 2 leading feminists of the era (founders of what became Planned Parenthood) and his children with the latter, who did not know he was their father. He was the creator of the Lie Detector test but their lives were completely based on lies and the only truths they revealed, they did so through Wonder Woman stories. I knew a high percentage of these factoids but the personal files and journals which Lepore had access to make this a pretty definitive look at, not only a character created as feminist propaganda, but also the history of the Lie Detector test and the pre-WWI feminist movement.
    [​IMG]
     
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  4. tom

    tom Chosen One star 8

    Registered:
    Mar 14, 2004
    that sounds super interesting, will have to give it a look.
     
  5. A Chorus of Disapproval

    A Chorus of Disapproval Head Admin & TV Screaming Service star 10 Staff Member Administrator

    Registered:
    Aug 19, 2003
    It is definitely a solid financial investment.
     
  6. Sarge

    Sarge Chosen One star 10

    Registered:
    Oct 4, 1998
    William Shakespeare's The Empire Striketh Back. Aye, laugh indeed, thou fuzzball large.
     
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  7. Chancellor_Ewok

    Chancellor_Ewok Chosen One star 7

    Registered:
    Nov 8, 2004
    Seconded. That's a really good book.
     
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  8. Rogue_Ten

    Rogue_Ten Chosen One star 7

    Registered:
    Aug 18, 2002
    "The Krauthammer" was what they called my unit in The Big One

    and by "my unit", i mean my penis

    and by "The Big One", i also mean my penis
     
  9. Sarge

    Sarge Chosen One star 10

    Registered:
    Oct 4, 1998
    Way to keep this thread classy, R_T.
     
    Rogue_Ten likes this.
  10. vypernight

    vypernight Jedi Master star 3

    Registered:
    Nov 1, 2012
    Frankenstein. After only watching various movies, the book shows some surprising differences. For example, rather than, "It's alive!" Victor's reaction is more like, "WTF?" and he bolts. And the creature, rather than grunting, can speaking very well, and quite at length (giving a 6-chapter monologue).

    Still, I'm enjoying it and would love to see this version as a movie.
     
  11. SWpants

    SWpants Force Ghost star 5

    Registered:
    Oct 28, 2004
    Clash of Kings by George R. R. Martin
     
  12. DAR

    DAR Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    Jul 8, 2004
    One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
     
  13. Dark Luke

    Dark Luke Jedi Padawan star 1

    Registered:
    Dec 10, 2014
    Dracula, after having read The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Frankenstein.
     
  14. Drac39

    Drac39 Force Ghost star 6

    Registered:
    Jul 9, 2002
    Karloff, More Than A Monster.

    Meticulously researched and very interesting although I'm convinced if I weren't a monster nut it might come across as a textbook. I'm loving it.
     
  15. VadersLaMent

    VadersLaMent Chosen One star 10

    Registered:
    Apr 3, 2002
    [​IMG]

    Empire Of Dust. A bit of space opera with a runaway telepath.
     
  16. Darth Gangrenous

    Darth Gangrenous Chosen One star 10

    Registered:
    Jun 1, 2005
    Charon's Claw, the third book in the Neverwinter saga of the Forgotten Realms. It's the 22nd book featuring Drizzt Do'Urden.

    [​IMG]
     
  17. LAJ_FETT

    LAJ_FETT Tech Admin (2007-2023) - She Held Us Together star 10 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    May 25, 2002
    Nonfiction - Thomas Cromwell by Tracy Borman. (Recommended if you are currently watching the BBC TV series Wolf Hall.)

    Fiction - probably going to start Foxglove Summer by Ben Aaronovitch later tonight.
     
  18. SWpants

    SWpants Force Ghost star 5

    Registered:
    Oct 28, 2004

    I'm still reading that because I have a book for my grad course:
    Supervision: A Redefinition (9th ed) by Thomas J. Sergiovanni, Robert J. Starratt, & Vincent Cho
     
  19. Sarge

    Sarge Chosen One star 10

    Registered:
    Oct 4, 1998
    Theft of Swords by Michael Sullivan. A pair of thieves is hired to steal a sword and get caught up in a plot to assassinate the king. It's a generic fantasy story, nothing groundbreaking or even original, but I like the characters.
     
  20. Juke Skywalker

    Juke Skywalker Force Ghost star 5

    Registered:
    Mar 27, 2004
    The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Robert Heinlein
     
  21. AmazingB

    AmazingB Manager Emeritus star 7 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Jan 12, 2001
    I read the whole series a year or two ago. It will continue to be nothing groundbreaking, but I found the whole thing incredibly enjoyable.

    I've been reading The Dark is Rising Sequence by Susan Cooper. Started the third book the other day.

    Amazing.
     
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  22. DarthMane2

    DarthMane2 Force Ghost star 5

    Registered:
    Sep 20, 2003
    Finished FROM HELL


    Great book. Masterwork of the medium. Had me frightened of my own shadow for about 30 minutes after reading.

    And it wasn't the main story that did it. It was a panel in the second appendix where Mary kelly has the sheet pulled up as she looks at the opened door to her room to reveal.......nothing
     
  23. Sarge

    Sarge Chosen One star 10

    Registered:
    Oct 4, 1998
    Just finished Falling Sky, first novel by Rajan Khanna. Post zombie-apocalypse adventure story with dark and gritty protagonists who fly blimps and scavenge the dead remains of civilization for food. You can tell they're dark and gritty cuz they use the f-bomb a lot. Meh.
     
  24. Rogue1-and-a-half

    Rogue1-and-a-half Manager Emeritus who is writing his masterpiece star 9 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Nov 2, 2000
    NOS4A2 (2013) - Joe Hill

    [​IMG]

    Hill is Stephen King’s son, in case you didn’t know. This is the first of his writing that I’ve picked up to read and I think I can safely say that he is his father’s son. I suppose some might call it a slam when I say that the book has the feel of classic Stephen King; people are all about artists blazing their own paths. But if you know how much I love classic King, you’ll know it’s no slam coming from me. The book, which is pretty hefty at almost nine-hundred pages, moves like a house on fire; it’s a page-turner for sure. It’s the story of Victoria McQueen, though she likes to be called Vic, and her strange ability to find things simply by thinking about them and riding across a particular covered bridge in the woods; it’s also the story of Charlie Manx and his menacing Rolls Royce, complete with titular license plate, and his strange propensity for stealing children in order to populate a place he calls “Christmasland.” If something is telling you Christmasland isn’t as happy a place as it sounds . . . well, trust your instincts on that. The book isn’t very scary, but it’s incredibly imaginative; Hill has a gift for strange, haunting images and disturbing ones too – the book won’t scare you exactly, but it’ll make your skin crawl a bit. But, just like King, Hill grounds all the fantastic and supernatural stuff in believable, interesting characters and real human emotions. Vic is a wonderful character, as strong a female character as I’ve read in quite a while; and Manx is a creepy villain – the less said about the Gas Mask Man right now, the better. And there’s a small supporting character named Maggie, a girl that gets psychic messages through Scrabble tiles that’s interesting and compelling enough to base a whole book around, but she’s just a supporting player here. And I’m not ashamed to say that I found myself getting a little misty-eyed a couple of times in that last hundred pages or so. Anyway, it’s a great, compulsive read. I found myself just really caught up and wanting to just keep reading. It’s definitely one of those books that’s both a great genre read and also a smart literary piece. Yeah, great book. Highly recommended. 4 stars.

    tl;dr – Hill has the genius of his father, Stephen King; this epic about good vs. evil is both a fantastic and compelling horror thriller and a well-written, wonderfully characterized, deeply emotional piece of literature. 4 stars.

    More Book Reviews!
     
  25. VadersLaMent

    VadersLaMent Chosen One star 10

    Registered:
    Apr 3, 2002
    [​IMG]

    This book is about Henry Sturges, the vampire who turned Lincoln into a vampire and helped him through life. Struggling author Seth Grahame-Smith in Anne Rice fashion meets Henry and writes his story as a sequal to his somewhat successful Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter novel.