Hey!! Let's get some action going! What are we reading?

[bjones6416]

I started reading "Sh*t My Dad Says" while sitting in a hospital waiting room yesterday. Note to self: Do NOT try reading this book in public again.

I'm sure the people sitting around me thought either that I was mentally deficient or that I was so overcome with worry that I had gotten hysterical. I kept trying to muffle my laughter, which made me look like I was crying incontrollably. Very funny book, although seen from another angle it could be construed as some sort of verbal child abuse, I guess. As much as I am laughing at it, I think I would be upset if I actually HEARD a father talking to a young child that way.

[jgaiser]

Originally Posted by bjones6416

I started reading "Sh*t My Dad Says" while sitting in a hospital waiting room yesterday. Note to self: Do NOT try reading this book in public again.

Used to follow him on Twitter before I closed my account and the book is funnier. Not high art but a fun read...

[MacEachaidh]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Still on Green Mars. Bits of it are great, but the overall structure irritates me, and seems to be very slow and lumbering. I'm not sure I'll manage to finish it.

Comments from anyone who's read it? I'm probably about 1/3 of the way through Green Mars.

I think I had a similar experience to yours, pdurrant: read Red Mars but came away unconvinced, continued on to Green Mars mostly out of curiosity about my own perception, but gave up about halfway through the second book. It seemed convoluted and clumsy to me, to no pleasing effect.

[MacEachaidh]

I've just finished Pirate Latitudes by the late Michael Crichton.

I've been a sporadic fan of his for a while, mostly admiring his ability to take intriguing scientific developments and weave a narrative around them. I went off him with the last two books before his death - I was uncomfortable with what were effectively ad hominem harangues of people who had opposing points of view on climate change, and score-settling with people in real life that Crichton had felt slighted by. They weren't so much novels as linen being washed in public.

But Pirate Latitudes seemed likely to be distinct from the partisan sniping, and fortunately that's how it turned out as well. Unfortunately, it seemed there was a reason it hadn't been in the hands of his publishers before he died. I'm sure, had Crichton survived his cancer, he would have done at least a few more drafts of the book before he submitted it. Still, I enjoyed the read. And Spielberg's already optioned it for a film - before it was even published, no less - I've no doubt because of the Crichton name and to buy himself a ticket on the Pirates of the Caribbean bandwagon - but I'm doubting the final film will be much like the book.

Next up: well, I'm on a bit of a jag. I'm starting On Stranger Tides by Tim Powers - yes, another pirate tale - the book the fourth PotC film is derived from.

[ImogenRose]

I am reading Hush Money by Susan Biscoff. Really enjoying it.

[jeffcobb]

I am finishing off volume 6 (Union Bust) of 80 or so volumes of The Destroyer by Warren Murphy and Dick Sapir. Almost 30 years ago a buddy in the Army got me reading these for fun so I was so delighted to finally find them as ebooks...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Des..._%28fiction%29

[carld]

Originally Posted by Cyclops

Who wrote that?

It's by williemeikle here on MR.

[roger the rabbit]

Originally Posted by MacEachaidh

I've just finished Pirate Latitudes by the late Michael Crichton.

I've been a sporadic fan of his for a while, mostly admiring his ability to take intriguing scientific developments and weave a narrative around them. I went off him with the last two books before his death - I was uncomfortable with what were effectively ad hominem harangues of people who had opposing points of view on climate change, and score-settling with people in real life that Crichton had felt slighted by. They weren't so much novels as linen being washed in public.

But Pirate Latitudes seemed likely to be distinct from the partisan sniping, and fortunately that's how it turned out as well. Unfortunately, it seemed there was a reason it hadn't been in the hands of his publishers before he died. I'm sure, had Crichton survived his cancer, he would have done at least a few more drafts of the book before he submitted it. Still, I enjoyed the read. And Spielberg's already optioned it for a film - before it was even published, no less - I've no doubt because of the Crichton name and to buy himself a ticket on the Pirates of the Caribbean bandwagon - but I'm doubting the final film will be much like the book.

Next up: well, I'm on a bit of a jag. I'm starting On Stranger Tides by Tim Powers - yes, another pirate tale - the book the fourth PotC film is derived from.

I read this a while ago and agree it was good but unpolished.

I also stopped buying his work after he started charging his readers to read/listen to his rants/opinions
(you expressed it much better than I )

The only reason I read Pirate Latitudes was because I was given a copy.
I would not have bought one. However it is well worth a read.

[MickeyC]

Just finished Nine Dragons by Michael Connelly. Damn hard to put down. Arguably one of Connelly's best.

[Steve Anderson]

Blazing through The Miernik Dossier by Charles McCarry.

Published first in 1973 and set in about 1959, it's an espionage novel about several male and female covert agents from different countries and cultures who go on a road trip in a massive Cadillac from Switzerland to Austria and south to the Middle East, trying to keep their cover all the while. It's unlike anything I've read.

McCarry's been totally overlooked and is a great writer, in the same league as Le Carré or Graham Greene in the espionage/historical/mystery genres, if not better. This was his first, and there's more, most featuring an American spy named Paul Christopher. Great characters. Good stuff.

One warning -- I couldn't find this one as an e-book, but some of his others are e-books.

[poohbear_nc]

Finishing up "Sudden Sea: The Great Hurricane of 1938" - an interesting, if somewhat overwrought, recreation of the 1938 hurricane that devastated New England. My greatest criticism is the interpolation of various state histories to "pad out" the narrative. I don't think I really needed a description of the interchanges between Puritan settlers and Indian tribes - plunked into the middle of the 1938 narrative. I snagged it at a special price ($2.99 I think) - but I can't recommend it at the current full $9.99 price.

[pilotbob]

Originally Posted by poohbear_nc

Finishing up "Sudden Sea: The Great Hurricane of 1938" - an interesting, if somewhat overwrought, recreation of the 1938 hurricane that devastated New England. My greatest criticism is the interpolation of various state histories to "pad out" the narrative. I don't think I really needed a description of the interchanges between Puritan settlers and Indian tribes - plunked into the middle of the 1938 narrative. I snagged it at a special price ($2.99 I think) - but I can't recommend it at the current full $9.99 price.

Was that Hurricane Carol? I recall at the Yacht Club where I took sailing lessons in RI as a teen there was a "high water mark" plaque from Hurricane in 38... (I think it said and I think it say Carol). The plaque/water line is probably 4.5/5 feet above the floor of the building.

BTW: The high water mark was in the building which the classes were taught in which was behind (if you consider the water the front) of the main yacht club building across the access road and probably 30-40 feet (guesstimate) above the normal high tide.

BOb

[poohbear_nc]

Originally Posted by pilotbob

Was that Hurricane Carol? I recall at the Yacht Club where I took sailing lessons in RI as a teen there was a "high water mark" plaque from Hurricane in 38... (I think it said and I think it say Carol). The plaque/water line is probably 4.5/5 feet above the floor of the building.

BTW: The high water mark was in the building which the classes were taught in which was behind (if you consider the water the front) of the main yacht club building across the access road and probably 30-40 feet (guesstimate) above the normal high tide.

BOb

Yes - that's the one. Due to the configuration of the coastal areas, plus the speed (60 mph) of the storm along with its coming onshore at high tide, the storm surge topped 3-story buildings.

[rlparker]

Originally Posted by Steve Anderson

Blazing through The Miernik Dossier by Charles McCarry.

...

One warning -- I couldn't find this one as an e-book, but some of his others are e-books.

Sounds interesting; available for Kindles, but not for U.S. customers.

[BenG]

Just finished Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition by Daniel Okrent.

Talk about unintended consequences. The struggle to pass the 18th Amendment led to women's sufferage, the rise of organized crime syndicates as we know them today, income tax(if you destroy the nation's fifth largest industry you have to replace the tax revenue with something), plea bargaining, NASCAR, and the cruise industry.

Definitely a must read if you are at all interested in that era of American History.