BS: Best book you've read recently

Subject: BS: Best book you've read recently
From: Thompson
Date: 27 Nov 19 - 04:03 AM

What's the best book you've read recently?

My nominations:

* Shadowplay by Joseph O'Connor (about Bram Stoker, Henry Irving and Ellen Terry, the artist's life and the secret world of homosexuality in turn-of-the-(last)century England.

* Bel Canto by Ann Patchett - re-reading it; a superb book full of heart based on a hostage-taking by the Túpac Amaru in the 1990s.

Subject: RE: BS: Best book you've read recently
From: Thompson
Date: 29 Nov 19 - 10:55 AM

What, nobody reads?

Subject: RE: BS: Best book you've read recently
From: gillymor
Date: 29 Nov 19 - 11:36 AM

I recently finished "K: The History of Baseball in Ten Pitches" by Tyler Kepner. Lots of interesting anecdotes by some of the great pitchers and some of the lesser known players and coaches with just the right amount of technical information. One of the best baseball books I've read.

Subject: RE: BS: Best book you've read recently
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 29 Nov 19 - 01:08 PM

The Magic Of Reality by Richard Dawkins.

Subject: RE: BS: Best book you've read recently
From: Helen
Date: 02 Dec 19 - 03:32 AM

I'm happy to report that since my retirement a few months ago I have started reading more regularly again. Lady of leisure now. ("That was no lady...etc etc...boom-boom!")

I have been reading a range of different books lately.

The latest Terry Pratchett that I read was Wee Free Men, which is part of the Tiffany Aching series. It was a good 'un, but not what I would call the best Pratchett I've read.

I just bought a replacement book of the first Pratchett book that I ever read, and which set me on the Pratchett path for many, many years, and I managed to infect lots of other people with the Pratchett bug too, my library customers, friends, family etc. Somehow my copy of Good Omens was lost or misplaced and since I have also ordered the DVD of the TV series, I am planning to re-read the book in anticipation of watching the show. It will probably be a book that I list in this thread, even on my third reading, but I haven't read it for a couple of decades or so, so the thread title prohibits me from adding it to your list, i.e. it's not yet a "recent" read but it will be soon, I hope.

I also recently read Margaret Atwood's The Testaments, which is her sequel to The Handmaid's Tale. It was an interesting exercise, having read THT when it was first released and then again just before the TV series, which I wasn't really impressed with - compared with the book - because it went on and on and on and on. The Testaments was an interesting contrast to the direction that the TV show was going in. I just this morning watched a TV documentary on Margaret Atwood so that adds extra information as well to my overstacked brain.

Probably the best two books that I read while still in the workforce were by Scott Adams, i.e. The Dilbert Principle, and Dogbert's Top Secret Management Handbook. They kept me sane while laughing at how much Adams seemed to know about some of the people posing as managers at my ex-workplace.

Never ask an ex-librarian to name the best book s/he has read lately because it will never be just one book.

Subject: RE: BS: Best book you've read recently
From: Rapparee
Date: 02 Dec 19 - 08:18 PM

Berkeley Breathed Best Read On The Throne.

Subject: RE: BS: Best book you've read recently
From: Dorothy Parshall
Date: 03 Dec 19 - 08:24 PM

The Psychopath Inside by James Fallon

The Autistic Brain by Temple Grandin

I like to read good books about the Brain and how it functions - mine does not always function well so I keep trying to understand it better.

Subject: RE: BS: Best book you've read recently
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 03 Dec 19 - 08:39 PM

Ann boleyn - 500 years of lies - free on Kindle

happy Hoofer by Celia Imrie

Subject: RE: BS: Best book you've read recently
From: Iains
Date: 04 Dec 19 - 03:33 AM

The Cycle of Cosmic Catastrophes: Flood, Fire and Famine in the History of Civilization
by Simon Firestone, Richard; West, Allen; Warwick-Smith

Subject: RE: BS: Best book you've read recently
From: Nick
Date: 04 Dec 19 - 03:51 AM

The Deals that Made the World by Jacques Peretti. Fascinating book. I never realised I was so ill informed and/or naive.

Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right by the American investigative journalist Jane Mayer. Similar to the above. Coincidentally David Koch died while I was reading it.

AIQ: How Artificial Intelligence Works and how We Can Harness Its Power for a Better World by James Scott and Nick Polson. Felt I ought to understand more about all this.

Amongst others

Novel - The Friends of Harry Perkins. By Chris Mullin (links to A Very British Coup that I read - and watched - many years ago)

Subject: RE: BS: Best book you've read recently
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 04 Dec 19 - 08:25 AM

Jum Murray's Whisky Bible.

Dave H

Subject: RE: BS: Best book you've read recently
From: DMcG
Date: 04 Dec 19 - 09:10 AM

I have been pushing "Invisible Women: Exposing Data Bias in a World Designed for Men" quite a bit recently. It looks at a whole mass of issues where women are overlooked in very fundamental ways, largely because the relevant information is not collected, or when it is, taken into account. I am sure it can open your eyes to issues whoever you are, but especially so for men.

To take a simple example: why is there no suitable seatbelt for pregnant women?

Subject: RE: BS: Best book you've read recently
From: DMcG
Date: 04 Dec 19 - 09:15 AM

(If any male thinks of answering that seatbelt question, I recommend you talk to a few women about seatbelts first!)

Subject: RE: BS: Best book you've read recently
From: Thompson
Date: 04 Dec 19 - 02:38 PM

See, Nick, curses do work.

Back to fiction: I'm eagerly awaiting Ann Patchett's new book from the library: Dutch House. Have heard very good things about it.

Subject: RE: BS: Best book you've read recently
From: Senoufou
Date: 04 Dec 19 - 05:50 PM

Have been re-reading Unreliable Memoirs by Clive James, who died recently. Very entertaining. RIP Clive

Subject: RE: BS: Best book you've read recently
From: Rapparee
Date: 05 Dec 19 - 07:29 PM

I should also mention that I'm reading Sabrina A. Penn's "A Place for My Children," Harold Burke-Sivers' "Father Augustus Tolton," "Diamond Jubilee Souvenir, St. Boniface Congregation, Quincy, , RecIll., 1837-1912" (an original copy!), George Byron Merrick's "Old Times of the Upper Mississippi, Recollections of a Steamboat Pilot from 1854 to 1863," and Randall Munroe's latest, "How To: Absurd Scientific Advice for Common Real-World Problems." Oh! and one called "1003 Facts That Will Scare You Sh*tless."

Subject: RE: BS: Best book you've read recently
From: Donuel
Date: 05 Dec 19 - 08:57 PM

Helen should write: The Instruction Book for Humans

It is about Female health care and feeding body and soul,
since men never read the instructions.

Subject: RE: BS: Best book you've read recently
From: Donuel
Date: 06 Dec 19 - 09:53 AM

Thanks Rap. How to is fun

Subject: RE: BS: Best book you've read recently
From: keberoxu
Date: 08 Dec 19 - 02:12 PM

"Biting the Dust" is a non-fiction book that has been around for years, but I have only just read it.

I've forgotten her name already. The author is an English journalist. The subject is the history of house-cleaning. My paperback copy is no doorstop, just the average-sized book; nevertheless it is packed with carefully researched information into centuries of women waging the never-ending war against dirt and filth.

The author is a woman interviewing both men and women, and she writes with concise with. And she HATES being condescended to, so she has a bone to pick with the highly successful Don Aslett. I thoroughly enjoyed reading "Biting the Dust."