What are you reading?

Thomas Pikety's "Capital in the 21 Century" and "En Busca de Klingsor" by Jorge Volpi. Hard going but very rewarding, both of them.

Jeez, you folks me feel kinda like an idiot for only reading novels that i pick up at Cafe Magana!  And i've been picking THOSE based on cover art just for the hell of it.  (No Kindle or Kindle-alike for me....i'm saving up to nationalize my pickup.)  

But here are some good things i've read in the past few weeks:  "The Slap" by Christos Tsiolkas (Australian); "Stay of Execution" by Quintin Jardine (Scottish); several Penny Vincenzi (English) sagas; "Leonardo's Swans" by Karen Essex (USA); and just re-read "Piece of Cake" by Derek Robinson (English) about the very early years of the RAF in WWII.

I am mostly reading Kindle best sellers. Just picked up another couple hundred. I finished "The Death Cure" James Dashner - this is the third book in the mazerunner trilogy. Gripping pace. Kind of a younger crowd, like Divergence or the Hunger Games.

From there right into a Malcolm Gladwell book ( a popular writer for New Yorker with many recent best sellers). As always, a storm of opinions and discussion surround his work - here is an excerpt he wrote about leadership for a business website.
http://www.inc.com/issie-lapowsky/malcolm-gladwell-david-and-goliath.html

Rosa Venus wrote:After that I'll read the Steve Jobs biography by Walter Issacson, which I'm really looking forward to reading.

I don't think this is a 'spoiler', Malcolm Gladwell article in New Yorker praising this book and writing about Steve Jobs.

http://gladwell.com/the-tweaker/

Thunderstruck by Erik Larson ... read his The Devil In the White City last year about the World's Fair in Chicago in the late 1800's ... it was fantastic .... so much so that we took a trip afterward to see the architecture and some of the sites talked about in the book. These are historical fiction and very interesting.

I also read Devil in the White City and thought it was amazing. Where and when does Thunderstruck take place?

Thunderstruck takes place in England between 1900 and 1910. This is a quote from the note to the readers, "There was a poignancy as well, for the story unfolded during what many, looking back, would consider the last sunny time before World War I, or as Priestley put it, "before the fatal telegrams arrived at every great house." It is as good in it's way as The Devil and The White City ...

Thank you, listennow.

My nephew just gave me "The Hunger Games" trilogy. Only about 60 pages in. Seems to have been inspired by "The Lottery".

Just finished Dr. Sleep by Stephen King, The Valley of Amazement by Amy Tan, and Chasing the Ghost by Bob Mayer. Radically different books/styles/subject matter but all good reads. Next up, Biblical Nonsense by Jason Long.

Kathy just downloaded: HOW IT GOES IN MEXICO to her Kindle and sitting across the room howling at the essays:
http://www.howitgoesinmexico.com/#home
http://www.amazon.com/How-Goes-Mexico-Essays-expatriate-ebook/dp/B00HRTCYBA/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1401149190&sr=1-1&keywords=how+it+goes+in+mexico

Clive Cussler's "The Bootlegger" is a good read. It is interesting to compare with the current legalization of marijuana.


"
It is 1920, and both Prohibition and bootlegging are in full swing. When Isaac Bell’s boss and lifelong friend Joseph Van Dorn is shot and nearly killed leading the high-speed chase of a rum-running vessel, Bell swears to him that he will hunt down the lawbreakers, but he doesn’t know what he is getting into. When a witness to Van Dorn’s shooting is executed in a ruthlessly efficient manner invented by the Russian secret police, it becomes clear that these are no ordinary criminals. Bell is up against a team of Bolshevik assassins and saboteurs—and they are intent on overthrowing the government of the United States"

jayc1ay wrote:Thomas Pikety's "Capital in the 21 Century" and "En Busca de Klingsor" by Jorge Volpi. Hard going but very rewarding, both of them.

I am envious. I would love to get my paws on the Pikety, but $22 is a bit steep for me right now. If by any chance you are feeling generous when you finish it and are able to loan it out, I would be enthusiastically appreciative.

I have been a busy reader. Chelsea Handler's "Uganda be killing me" is very funny - I find her writing to be more entertaining than the television shows. Read "The Alchemist" - complete waste of time. But the reason I am posting is that Robert Wagner's book "You Must Remember This" is not just an auto biography, but the personalities, architecture, and styles of Hollywood's golden era. It is story which has never been told, and this is written by someone right in the middle of all. Highly recommended for summer reading.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2578315/Former-heartthrob-Robert-Wagner-84-hits-publicity-trail-promote-new-book-Golden-Age-Hollywood.html

Heaven is For Real, a quick read on Kindle and can hardly wait for the movie to come out here in theaters...

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0849946158?pc_redir=1402310294&robot_redir=1

Walter Kirn's "Blood Will Out", a memoir of a con man, murderer, and very eccentric - Clark Rockefeller. He is very good writer of fiction - but this is a true and interesting story.

http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/books/2014/03/walter_kirn_s_memoir_about_clark_rockefeller_blood_will_out_reviewed.html

Just began "Written in My Own Hearts Blood" the new Diana Gabaldon to her "Outlander" series.

I am requiring my husband to read the "Outlander" series since he so enjoyed the Edward Rutherfurd novels he read this past year.

http://www.amazon.com/Edward-Rutherfurd/e/B000AQ11FC/ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1?qid=1402682747&sr=1-1