New! Reading Anything Thread 2.0

[pennywise37]

wow i hadn't updated on what i read since Ogre, Ogre, i read 1st To Die by James Patterson (2001), 2nd Chance also by James Patterson (2002)  and now i'm reading 3rd Degree also by James Patterson (2004)

when i read a book i dunno about anyone else but sometimes the book can stay in my mind for awhile before i move on to something else and if it's a series those characters can be in my head for awhile and if they still are i just read another one in the Series. 1st To Die (2001) i had read before i want to say at least 2 times before but not in years. the 1st time was when it first came out in (2001) but i had started 2nd Chance (2002)  a few times but i never did finish it until a few days ago i started it over but i've never read any of the others as i prefer to read them in order

[indianasmith]

I ALONE CAN FIX IT: DONALD J. TRUMP'S CATASTROPHIC FINAL YEAR by Carol Leonnig and Philip Rucker

  A powerful, well-researched, enthralling, and horrifying look inside the Trump White House, spanning from January 2020 to February 2021.  Based on hundreds of hours of interviews with White House staff, cabinet members, congressmen, senators, and Trump himself, two journalists outline the President's horrifically incompetent response to the COVID pandemic, his casual cruelty, and above all the psychotic self-centeredness of a leader utterly devoid of compassion and decency, a man who had to be repeatedly dissuaded from using the U.S. military against our own citizens, whose utter divorce from reality lead him to a brazen attempt to overthrow the U.S. government rather than admit the American people had rejected him.  I've been appalled by Donald Trump for decades, horrified by the thought that such a man could be elected to the nation's highest office, and puzzled as to why a third of the country still worships him when he should be rotting in jail for sedition.  Nothing in this book changed my mind - but sadly, it won't change theirs either.  Still, this one is a compelling read regardless of where you stand on the former President.  5/5

[pennywise37]

i just can't read a book about him all it does it just anger me cause of all the crap he did and how many deaths he caused for not doing a damn thing.

anyways on a whim i dunno if this happens to anyone but i was trying  to write a poem  and trying to think of some ideas when all it a sudden it hit me to watch a Harry Potter movie i think that's one of those series you love it or hate it but than you can say that about a lot of book series or hell film series.

anyways, so it being at the time too late to watch any of the films i picked up the last book Deathly Hallows (2007)  i've been reading the series since around early (2000) i think? i don't think the 1st film had even started filming at that time cause it was filmed that year but Goblet of Fire (2000) wasn't out yet and it wasn't even out yet so the newest one was Prisoner of Azkaban  (1999)  i know it's spelled wrong but i'm to damn lazy to look it up lol.

anyways in short i've been reading it since i was 21.   it was more really on a Lark i forget why i started he he anyways, i was almost #300  pages into it as it was and so i picked it up and i've been reading that ever since. i've still got over #400 pages to go i'm on page #350 i think? 

so it was quite easy to get back into the book all i needed to do was just start a chapter over that's all.

anyways, i was today and bought Blockade Billy  (2021)   it just came out and is Stephen King's new one in fact it just came out on i think the 3rd?  i may read that one i dunno just yet

[Neville]

The problem I see with a current book about Trump is that next week we will get some new revelation by a former staff member that should be on the book. The definitive book on Trump has still to be written.

[Rev. Powell]

"A Hedonist Manifesto" by Michel Onfray. Not that I need any convincing.

[Neville]

I'm reading a book called "Spillover" by David Quammen. It chronicles centuries of investigations about outbreaks such as Ebola, Lyme's disease and many others. Don't look for morbid descriptions of the infected here, but it is a very interesting read, especially in these times.

[indianasmith]

THE YEARS OF LYNDON JOHNSON: MEANS OF ASCENT by Robert Caro

This second volume of Caro's authoritative LBJ bio focuses on Johnson's years in Congress from 1941-48, especially on his turbulent campaign for the Democratic nomination for Texas' U.S. Senate seat in 1948, which culminated in LBJ winning by 87 votes turned in 6 days after the election was over from a single precinct in South Texas.  The flagrant theft of the nomination was aided and abetted by a Federal judge, who stopped an investigation on the literal day that the ballot box was to be open and the contested votes examined.  Johnson is on display in all his flawed glory in this book: His bravery during his one WW2 combat mission negated by his shameless lying about it afterwards, his utter lack of accomplishment as a member of Congress during the war, his willingness to be all things to all men in order to win, and his complete amorality in the pursuit of power.  Halfway through this massive undertaking, I will simply say this:  Caro's account of Johnson's life is one of the finest biographies I have ever read, period!

[Rev. Powell]

New bathroom reading.

[Alex]

Finished Darkwalker On Moonshae which might be the best 'Dungeons & Dragons' story I've read (admittedly a lot of them I thought were quite poor).

[Neville]

I'm reading "Broken" by Don Winslow. It's a collection of short stories starring characters from his previous works. So you get to see again the characters from "Bobby Z" or "Savages" among others. The stories themselves are OK, they don't have the scope of his longer novels, but they're fun to read.

[indianasmith]

The Years of Lyndon Johnson: MASTER OF THE SENATE by Robert Caro

I read a LOT of biographies, but I will say that Robert Caro's magisterial series on LBJ is some of the finest biographical writing ever done.  Rich in detail and setting, Caro not only explains the complicated life and mixed record of Lyndon Johnson in lively and compelling detail, he also weaves in powerful portraits of the men who helped LBJ in his rise to power - Speaker of the House Sam Rayburn, Georgia Senator Richard Russell, and passionate liberal Hubert Humphrey, along with Presidents Harry Truman and Dwight Eisenhower, are all painted in bold and vibrant strokes.  Johnson, having stolen won the Texas democratic primary for Senate by 89 votes, finds in the Senate a place where he can put all his skills to use, and in record time he bypasses the rules of seniority that govern that tradition-heavy body to become Majority Leader - not only that, but to become the most powerful Majority Leader in history.  Despite standing with the "Solid South" in opposition to any and all civil rights legislation, he still managed, in 1958, to push the first civil rights bill into law in 75 years.  It was a weak law, to be sure, but it still broke the South's perfect record on blocking civil rights legislation and set the stage for the huge reforms of his Presidency. Indeed, it becomes clear as one follows Caro's narrative that Johnson's whole life was lived in ruthless pursuit of one goal - the Presidency.  "Power corrupts," the old sayin goes, but Caro makes it clear that power also reveals - how one uses power shows where one's heart is.  Johnson is a very complicated person, vile in many ways and admirable in others, and Caro paints him, warts and all, in one of the greatest biographies ever penned.  I've already jumped into the next volume, THE PASSAGE OF POWER.  Highly recommended, 5/5.

[Sitting Duck]

"Power corrupts," the old sayin goes

I lean more towards Frank Herbert's update of that chestnut, in it's more that power attracts the easily corrupted.

[lester1/2jr]

^agree with that. Also, ever notice how people overlook the "power corrupts" in favor of "absolute power..."?   people like to think a little bit of power is safe

I'm reading "What Paul Meant"

It's an analysis of the letters of Paul in the New Testament and tries to dispel some of what the author feels are myths about the famous apostle.

His main focus so far is to contrast the book of Acts with Paul himself and point out the differences. I hadn't really thought about it before, but it doesn't make tons of sense that while the Romans were the ones who had to put people to death because the pharisees didn't have that power, Saul was authorized not only to persecute Christians in Jerusalem but also somehow given authority to go to Syria and persecute those people.

In general the author prefers the letters to Luke/ acts

[Rev. Powell]

Netflix sent me this paperback as a promotion for the movie adaptation they made. It's short and I'm probably going to see the film, so I'm giving it a whirl.

[Alex]

SAS: Band of brothers.

A true story of the capture of an SAS team inserted into occupied France to sabotage German defences and transport networks. They are tortured and eventually sent for execution on the direct orders of Hitler, but some of the team managed to survive and escape. The story then moves onto the hunt for the killers in the last days of WW2 and shortly after its end. It is one of a series of books on SAS/SOE operations and is a decent read, although not a completely riviting one so I am not sure if it would hold the attention of anyone who doesn't study the war.