Liars Poker by Michael Lewis - Good read on the 1980’s bond market
Days of Rage by Bryan Burrough - A book about 1960’s leftist radicals and their bombing campaigns. Unfortunately Mr. Burrough just list their attacks and didn’t go in depth into their beliefs. If anyone knows of any books that objectively dive into 1960’s counterculture movement I would greatly appreciate it.
Can we expand this thread to books we gave up on?
Executioners Song by Norman Mailer - Woof, got 700 pages in and couldn’t do it anymore. How did this win the Pulitzer prize?
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Haha, what are you NOT reading.
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I just finished this last night and loved it. However, I was on my Kindle and very much regret not having had it as a real book, because there were a lot of characters and the back and forth through time was a little confusing to me. I would have liked to be able to page back (“sasha, sasha…who was she, now? the one in Africa?”). Eventually I pulled it up on my phone to look back and organize things, but it’s never as easy on a device as with pages you can leaf through.
I may have to reread it, because there was a preview of the sequel, The Candy House, and I would like to read that.
I may go to Beartown next.
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Almost done with Penthouse Letters
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Read those 40 years ago, lol
Pocket Fox too
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Not being able to easily flick back through the pages is a real drawback of reading on Kindle! I also miss not having physical books in my home, to the extent where I have started collecting first editions of my favourite books.
I’m not buying them myself: my family alleges that I am impossible to buy presents for, so I made a list of books I love and distributed it ahead of my last birthday. I have two so far, really beautiful, signed hard cover first editions of Kafka On The Shore and The Fault In Our Stars.
Next birthday I plan to “subtly” underline two Peter Hoeg books, Borderliners and Miss Smilla’s Feeling For Snow. And another Murakami, Norwegian Wood.
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What a great idea! Though I have no particular investment in first editions, I totally get the joy of it, for both you and the gift givers.
I wonder if I should keep a list of books I’d like to potentially riffle through, or just the ones I’ve loved enough to want to see surrounding me as I move through the house. OTOH, I’ve become more and more desirous of clean space - which of course has me just following the minimalist trend, lemming-like. Still, I am very satisfied to dust less. And at some point where do the new book cases go? I guess I could do a “one in one out” system. Hmm.
Riffling through books…this is something I feel a huge loss of with the kindle. I’ve always loved sharing things I read (“listen to this”) and looked back myself at things that move me. I’ve started taking photos of my kindle, because some of the things I bring to work. Although (and here is the loss) I have no idea what with one exception, because of the difference in the way I absorb the two book forms. Okay, I just looked, and here’s one I could post in every single PWI thread ever. It’s from The Golem and the Jinni (an excellent book as it turned out, just a nice, big, good book). The sheltering house was an early homeless shelter, but sounds like with more services and optimism than we see currently: “organized by Eastern European Jews in 1889 … providing meals, transportation, and jobs to members of the fast-growing Russian Jewish population.” Anyway here it is:
My son, the one who recommended The Golem, is a huge fan.
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My latest reads (listens):
No One Needs to Know by Lindsay Cameron - 5 stars
It Happened One Fight by Maureen Lee Lenker - 3.5 stars
The Breakaway by Jennifer Weiner - 4 stars
Bright Young Women by Jessica Knoll - 3.5 stars
The Hike by Lucy Clarke - 4.5 stars
Currently listening to:
Strange Sally Diamond by Liz Nugent
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The Fifth Season - NK Jemisin
This is the first of a fantasy trilogy, so very much outside my wheelhouse, but I thoroughly enjoyed it! Good to mix things up a bit.
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Hustler jokes
The Psychopath Test by Jon Ronson
Billion Dollar Whale by Bradley Hope and Tom Wright - excellent book about the 1MDB crisis and the squandering of Malaysia’s sovereign wealth fund
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Just finished “Malibu Rising”. I liked it, but it was nowhere near as good as Daisy Jones!
Also read “My Name Is Lucy Barton” by Elizabeth Strout. I read it because she’s won Pulitzers and whatnot and this is very highly critically acclaimed… anyhoo, I liked it, but it was dreadfully sad and I’m not sure I fully understood it, because I wouldn’t have thought it would be anywhere near any major literary awards. Which may of course be why I’m not a book critic!
Just started The Candy House @EmilyQ , I’ll let you know if its anywhere near as good as The Goon Squad!
I agree! My Taylor Jenkins Reid ratings in order:
- Daisy Jones and the Six
- The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo
- Malibu Rising
- Carrie Soto is Back
All of them are really good books!
I’ve read this one and gave it 3 stars, but I’m not really into the Dystopian genre, so that probably has a lot to do with my feelings on it.
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While meanwhile, I didn’t love Daisy Jones. I didn’t hate it, but just…no spark.
Maybe I’ll try Seven Husbands, though.
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Definitely give it a shot, just thinking about it again now, I maybe am changing my mind and that one should be ranked #1 and Daisy Jones #2…
It’s been a little bit, here’s my listened to lately list:
The Stranger Upstairs by Lisa M. Matlin - 4.5 stars
Yellowface by R.F. Kuang - 4 stars
Save What’s Left by Elizabeth Castellano - 4 stars
Mister Magic by Kiersten White - 3.5 stars
My Darling Girl by Jennifer McMahon - 3 stars
The Intern by Michele Campbell - 3.5 stars
Have You Seen Her by Catherine McKenzie - 4 stars
Leave the Lights On by Liv Andersson - 2 stars (not sure why I finished this one…)
Currently Listening to:
Reasonable Adults by Robin Lefler
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