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jkm, the stolen pifwafwi
11/28/2011, 04:41 PM
Haven't seen one of these threads lately.

Series:

Grimnoir Chronicles:

http://www.webscription.net/chapters/9781451637755/9781451637755.htm?blurb

Nice fantasy concept and rewrite of history. Guy who wrote monster hunter x (which I wasn't a fan of).

Cobra War Trilogy

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COBRA_(science_fiction_novels)

The first Cobra Series was Timothy Zahn's first book series pre-Heir to the Empire. The new series picks it up and extends it a bit.

Ranger's Apprentice:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ranger%27s_Apprentice

Reading these with my youngest daughter. I picked it out as an alternative to Harry Potter since she found them boring and she's hooked on the series. It is more of a straight action series than one that tries to have twists in every book.

The Lost Fleet Series

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lost_Fleet

This is one of those series where I have no idea why I like it. Everything is spoken of in general terms (ie Propulsion Units) but the story type has always been one that grabbed me. The first 4 books read like the first BSG episode where the cylons found them every X number of minutes.

Troy Rising Series

Outside of the Empire of the Man Series, John Ringo tends to start off with a bang and then end with a whimper. This series was really good through the first 2 books but the 3rd was meh.

8timechamps
11/28/2011, 04:51 PM
I'm dumb, so I can only read one book at a time. Just finished Death to the BCS. Moving on to some fiction with Stephen King's new book 11/22/63. Seems like a departure from his norm, so should be interesting. Haven't started it yet, but hope to dig in soon.

yermom
11/28/2011, 05:04 PM
i've been on a Stephen King kick with audio books lately. it's pretty awesome for road trips. i just finished all of The Dark Tower books in the last year or so. i'm thinking 11/22/63 and It are next

with real books i'm in the middle of Neuromancer: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neuromancer and i've been carrying around The Tipping Point: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tipping_Point but i haven't actually started it yet

i read Blink a while back by the same guy, and it's good

on deck, i have A Game of Thrones: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Game_of_Thrones and The Information: http://www.amazon.com/Information-History-Theory-Flood/dp/0375423729

Gleick's book on Chaos was cool interesting, so i thought i'd check that out as well. i'm usually in the middle of a fiction and a non-fiction book

soonerboomer93
11/28/2011, 05:15 PM
Just finished "A Game of Thrones"

Now I'm reading "Neverwinter" (book 2 in the newest Drizzt trilogy)

Then go back to the stuff from Martin

SoonerLaw09
11/28/2011, 05:22 PM
Steve Jobs' biography. You want to get in the mind of a severely troubled genius, this is the way. Let's just say that, if it weren't for LSD, Apple computers would not exist. :)

TUSooner
11/28/2011, 05:24 PM
Agent Zigzag, by Ben MacIntyre. It's true, detailed, and interesting story of a brash, daring and charismatic thief (blowing safes a specialty) turned British double agent in WW2. It includes a look at his German handlers as well as the British ones.

There's another book out about the same guy; both books were triggered by the recent release of previously top-secret files from both sides. I may have to read the other book, too, just to see which was better written.

cleller
11/28/2011, 06:05 PM
El Narco: Inside Mexico's Criminal Insurgency by Ioan Grillo. Pretty self explanatory title. The author is English, and went to Mexico around 2001 to work for a newspaper, and research Latin America.

Lots of info on the history of the narcotics trade, and how Mexico ended up as ground zero. Pretty good. Since the author is not American, occasionally I'll detect a little of the "those stupid fat Americans" creeping in, but mostly he stays objective.
This is library deal, my main source for books.

Oddly just today I picked up:

Arthur Conan Doyle: A Life in Letters off the bargain cart at Barnes and Noble. We had a left over gift card with $8.67 on it. With tax, the book was $8.66.
This book is letters collected by his family over his lifetime, so it might not be terribly thrilling, but I'm a sucker for a Sherlock Holmes connection.

jkm, the stolen pifwafwi
11/28/2011, 06:11 PM
I forgot one series that was really good -> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Night_Angel_Trilogy

The Ipad has made buying way too many books way too easy according to my wife.

NormanPride
11/28/2011, 06:27 PM
I'm reading Anathem by Neal Stephenson. I love the author, and so far I love the book. Before that I had chewed through a few of the Dresden Files books. Great stuff and easy reads.

cleller
11/28/2011, 09:42 PM
Forgot to add, I just pre-ordered at Amazon:

The Boxcar Children Occupy Wall Street.

picasso
11/28/2011, 10:30 PM
It's odd but I've been reading Into Thin Air, over and over. I think it's the colder weather and my fascination with tragedy.

12
11/28/2011, 10:43 PM
William Wordsworth - The Major Works

Not really a poetry geek, but some of it still rings true today.

AlboSooner
11/28/2011, 11:21 PM
The Black Banners

Memtig14
11/29/2011, 12:01 AM
D-Day in the Pacific
Islands of the Damned
The Pacific
Challenge for the Pacific
Urquhart....The Forgotten Highlander

ouwasp
11/29/2011, 12:04 AM
I just finished 11/22/63 last night. Wow. What a great story.

WA. Sooner
11/29/2011, 04:36 AM
Penthouse letters

SoonerAtKU
11/29/2011, 11:05 AM
I just finished 11/22/63 last night. Wow. What a great story.

I'm hoping to catch it the next time I'm at the library. I don't know if it's entirely the same, but you might enjoy James Ellroy's USA Undercover trilogy. It's about the 15 years from 1958-1973, encompassing the Kennedys, Vietnam, the rise of Vegas, the mob, the FBI, Howard Hughes, the Black Panthers, Martin Luther King, and everything else that was amazing and confusing during that time.

It's a "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern" type story of fictional characters that touch on and become involved in all of the above.

Zin
11/29/2011, 11:12 AM
I finally got Leaches book from the library, it was reserved for quite some time. So far it is very good.

SoonerLaw09
11/29/2011, 11:58 AM
I'm reading Anathem by Neal Stephenson. I love the author, and so far I love the book. Before that I had chewed through a few of the Dresden Files books. Great stuff and easy reads.

Excellent. Jim Butcher and I were students together at OU and I hung out at his house many an evening while he was writing the first couple of books. Knew back then they'd be a hit. He's a really great guy, very unassuming and even after all this time is still just happy as can be that he gets paid to do the thing he loves most. His wife writes also, if Mrs. NP is into romance with a tinge of supernatural. Mrs. SL09 calls it "girl pr0n". :)

3rdgensooner
11/29/2011, 12:01 PM
This is kind of cool:

Literature-Map - The tourist map of literature (http://www.literature-map.com/)


Discover your next favorite author. Enter the name of any writer and a swirling bunch of names settles into a map — not of influences, but of what other people who like that same author also like. The closer two writers are to each other on the map, the more likely it is that the same reader will love them both, and you may click from writer to writer, building a map from each one and exploring the matrix of literary taste.

The Maestro
11/29/2011, 12:03 PM
People still read books?

;)

Lott's Bandana
11/29/2011, 12:31 PM
A Brief History of Nearly Everything

Bill Bryson

MsProudSooner
11/29/2011, 01:33 PM
The best book I've read lately is "The Book Thief" by Markus Zuzak.

C&CDean
11/29/2011, 02:10 PM
This is kind of cool:

Literature-Map - The tourist map of literature (http://www.literature-map.com/)

I typed in "jk rowling" and got this:

ZUGRIFF NICHT ERLAUBT
Die angeforderte Seite darf nicht angezeigt werden.

WTF?

C&CDean
11/29/2011, 02:12 PM
OK, I tried "J.K. Rowling" and it worked. See jksooner and other non-punctuating lazy people, proper punctuation IS important in real life.

jkm, the stolen pifwafwi
11/29/2011, 07:23 PM
OK, I tried "J.K. Rowling" and it worked. See jksooner and other non-punctuating lazy people, proper punctuation IS important in real life.

Try Joanne Rowling ;)

Poor Brent Weeks, his ranges from Louis Lamour to Simon Green and his goofy Nightside books.

8timechamps
11/29/2011, 07:28 PM
It's odd but I've been reading Into Thin Air, over and over. I think it's the colder weather and my fascination with tragedy.

Great book! I've also seen a couple of programs about it. I think I fall into the fascinated group as well.

Lott's Bandana
11/29/2011, 09:50 PM
If you guys loved Into Thin Air, please read Boukreev's book about the incident The Climb, contradicting Krakauer's version, as well as Boukreev's biography, Above The Clouds.

Fascinating accounts of the same event and I came away not knowing who to believe, and yet, not really caring...that tragedy supersedes wrong and right, it happened.



I was obsessed with climbing books for some time, even though I can't climb a flight of stairs.

JohnnyMack
11/29/2011, 10:08 PM
I read Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter and The Strain recently. Reading Animal Farm right now because I never read it somehow.

winout
11/29/2011, 10:55 PM
"Bonhoeffer" by Eric Metaxas. http://www.amazon.com/Bonhoeffer-Pastor-Martyr-Prophet-Spy/dp/1595551387

Jobs bio next on my list.

GDC
11/29/2011, 10:56 PM
Fear and Loathing at Rolling Stone by Hunter Thompson

KantoSooner
11/30/2011, 10:32 AM
Empire of the Steppes, a bazillion page history of the peoples of the Eurasian Steppes from 4,000 BC to 20th century. My mind is shattered.

The Man In The Ice, original explanation of the research into the Iceman Mummy discovered in the Alps. You'll learn more about 'gravewax' than you ever imagined.