What Book Are You Currently Reading ... (And Why)?

[Stradageek]

With all the 'Fake News' scams going around I've been concentrating on getting the real facts from published literature (and making sure all the details are extensively cross referenced).

Best recent reads are:

Confronting Iran by Ali M. Ansari - why Iran and the USA are at such logger heads
Factfulness by Hans Rosling - Ten reasons why we're wrong about the world and why things are (a bit) better than you think
Honourable Friends by Caroline Lucas - why our archaic political system is so corrupt and in need of dissolution
The Poverty of Capitalism by John Hilary - the clue is in the title
Fukushima by Sean McDonagh - why nuclear power can never be an alternative
The coming first world debt crisis by Anne Pettifor - published in 2006 i.e. terrifyingly predictive, and things haven't changed
Going Postal by Mark Ames - ever wondered why there are so many mass shootings in the USA, if so this is a 'must read'
Austerity by Kerry-Anne Mendoza - the real reasons why post 2008 "we got mass austerity and the rich got let off tax (to quote Grace Petrie)"
The new threat from Islamic Militancy by Jason Burke - in depth analysis of most of the major attacks showing that there is more individual ire and much less co-ordinated terror than the politicians would like us to think.

If any of the above have been discredited for any reason, please let me know!

[Audax67]

I've given up reading improving books. If you discount the manuals that come with power tools, the only non-fiction I've opened in the last two years has been on guitar-building... although that might not be entirely true, I did read one on ancient Persia a while back.

Anyway, I just finished Stephen King's Doctor Sleep, which rates a half-closed eye* so lives up to its name. Highly recommended for insomniacs.

* wide open being good and closed being what you'd think.

[Hobbs1951]

Now reading Chastise by Max Hastings.

John.

[Mike Sales]

The Home of the Blizzard by Douglas Mawson.

Famous book about the Australian Antarctic Expedition of 1911-1914.

A classic of unpleasantly cold travel.

The flyleaf has by mother's name and address which is her first married home and my first home in 1951.
It was a rural cottage in Derbyshire with no road access or electricity and one water tap.

[landy5277]

I'm reading a book called Sarah's Key about the roundup of jewish children in 1942 Paris. It's interesting. It's fiction obviously but everything with the Nazi's has been fairly interesting for me especially after the trip to Auschwiz I had last year.

[Audax67]

Why obviously?

[Cyril Haearn]

Not read this, saw a review in a cycling journal (rst-hl news), looks interesting

Phillip Hoose, the boys who challenged hitler
The true story of some danish schoolboys who cut wires and turned signposts the wrong way to confound the occupiers, they upgraded to destroying vehicles and nicking ammo, got away on cycles
They were caught in May 1942, then other danes realised it might be worth trying resistance instead of keeping quiet, in autumn 1943 they managed to rescue many danish Jews, +1
Cycles were important in the resistance in Nederland too, the nazis tried to size them
The book draws on reminiscences of Knud Pedersen

[Cyril Haearn]

The Home of the Blizzard by Douglas Mawson.

Famous book about the Australian Antarctic Expedition of 1911-1914.

A classic of unpleasantly cold travel.

The flyleaf has by mother's name and address which is her first married home and my first home in 1951.
It was a rural cottage in Derbyshire with no road access or electricity and one water tap.

Still waiting for autobiographies by Vorpal + Mick F, when is yours being published?
Maybe I should write mine too

[rmurphy195]

A couple of items found in my late father-in-law's house

1) A big book of newspaper front pages from 1939-1945, some fascinating insights into the way people saw things then, how they were reported,and things that went on that you don't normally hear about

2) A copy of Julius Caeser (which I was forced to read at school!). What makes it interesting is that it originates from a rural area of Donegal, from a time when children's schooling was haphazard at best (F-I-L used to reminisce about going out with the horse and cart before school delivering/collecting stuff for the farm as a boy). The book is well worn, was published in 1896 and has many pencilled annotations through it.

[Cyril Haearn]

Plus One for old newspapers, I found one today from 1946
Rationing notices, adverts and prices are interesting

[Vorpal]

I am reading totally escapist fantasy

The October Daye series by Seanan McGuire. Overall, she's a good story teller. I think the early books in the series were early in her career, and therefore include some errors, but they get better as they go. I find some aspects a little too fantastic, but they do a good job of weaving the realms of the Fae with modern cities.

[Mike Sales]

Sea Beans and Nickar Nuts by E. Charles Nelson.

Seeds and nuts from the Americas can be carried across the Atlantic and washed up on the beaches of western Britain.
They may have given an inkling that there was land across the seas. They inspired folklore and were made into items like snuffboxes.
Now my eyes will be sharper when I am beachcombing.
Friends found a message in a bottle.

[merseymouth]

Hi all, Home of the Blizzard? Don't eat the old dog livers! (New Tricks episode, poisonous). MM

[Audax67]

I am reading totally escapist fantasy

The October Daye series by Seanan McGuire. Overall, she's a good story teller. I think the early books in the series were early in her career, and therefore include some errors, but they get better as they go. I find some aspects a little too fantastic, but they do a good job of weaving the realms of the Fae with modern cities.

Oh good, company. I'm reading the Sandman Slim series by Richard Kadrey, described as fantasy/supernatural/occult/noir by Goodreads, and on one cover as "the best B movie I ever read". Fun.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Kadrey

[Cyril Haearn]

Just finished a slim volume of short stories by Olga Tocarczuk (not in Polish unfortunately) the stories are very good, I must read them again sometime

Plus One for the literature nobel prize! Her novels look a bit daunting but worth trying

Did see a film based on one of her books a few years ago, before she got famous