What are you reading right now?

[sneakypete]

Not much of a reader now my eyesight requires glasses.... but reading "John L. Plaster - The Ultimate Sniper_ An Advanced Training Manual for Military and Police Snipers " now... The fellow knows his stuff, you can gather that by leafing the first few pages.

Kinda funny because I will never be anything but an average shooter with limited mobility at best. But I like reading other's insights in things like this (if nothing else to know what you are up against if things get tough).

@Sighlass

I took Plaster's  place on Recon Team New York in Kontum when I first got there because he went off to the army  sniper school in VN,and the team needed someone to fill in before he got back.

Can't remember when,but at some later date he quit running recon and spent the rest of his tour as a "Covey Rider" that flew around recon teams in trouble,and directed fire support as well as rescue helicopters to them after finding a clearing big enough for a slick to  land in,and directing them to it.

Being a Covey Rider was a pretty complex job and you  would always end up having to keep several "balls juggling in the air at the same time" by dealing with  the team on the ground,the air support flying to their rescue to strafe and drop bombs (some USAF,and some USN) ,as well as any "Bright Light" team activated to come to  their rescue on the ground if they were all wounded.

Sounds like a simple thing,but trust me,it's not.

[verga]

Not much of a reader now my eyesight requires glasses.... but reading "John L. Plaster - The Ultimate Sniper_ An Advanced Training Manual for Military and Police Snipers " now... The fellow knows his stuff, you can gather that by leafing the first few pages.

Kinda funny because I will never be anything but an average shooter with limited mobility at best. But I like reading other's insights in things like this (if nothing else to know what you are up against if things get tough).

@Sighlass Anotehr good one is LOng Range shooting by Ryan Clacker. Her ahs some great YouTube videos as well.

[Sighlass]

@Sighlass Anotehr good one is LOng Range shooting by Ryan Clacker. Her ahs some great YouTube videos as well.

Thanks, found his YT page... short informative videos.

[Gefn]

My bookclub is reading "Demon Copperhead" by Barbara Kingsolver

It's so beautifully written

[deb]

Night - Elie Wiesel.

Just thought it was an appropriate time to read it.

[Gefn]

Irish writer Paul Lynch wins Booker Prize with dystopian novel ‘Prophet Song’

ONDON (AP) — Irish writer Paul Lynch won the Booker Prize for fiction on Sunday with what judges called a “soul-shattering” novel about a woman’s struggle to protect her family as Ireland collapses into totalitarianism and war.

“Prophet Song,” set in a dystopian fictional version of Dublin, was awarded the 50,000-pound ($63,000) literary prize at a ceremony in London. Canadian writer Esi Edugyan, who chaired the judging panel, said the book is “a triumph of emotional storytelling, bracing and brave” in which Lynch “pulls off feats of language that are stunning to witness.”

Lynch, 46, had been the bookies’ favorite to win the prestigious prize, which usually brings a big boost in sales. His book beat five other finalists from Ireland, the U.K., the U.S. and Canada, chosen from 163 novels submitted by publishers.

https://apnews.com/article/booker-prize-fiction-winner-announced-06e46905a3bdac77966cb3ef4b64ed14

[Gefn]

Irish writer Paul Lynch wins Booker Prize with dystopian novel ‘Prophet Song’




https://apnews.com/article/booker-prize-fiction-winner-announced-06e46905a3bdac77966cb3ef4b64ed14

just reserved this one.

[Fishrrman]

Just finished yesterday:
"The Mountain Meadows Massacre", by Juanita Brooks.

Just started today:
"American Crucifixion: The Murder of Joseph Smith and the Fate of the Mormon Church" by Alex Beam.

[Gefn]

My bookclub will be reading "The Magnificent Lives of Marjorie Post" by Alison Pataki.

I am looking forward to this one.

[mountaineer]

I'm reading John Grisham's "The Rainmaker." After "A Time to Kill," which I thought was pretty darn awful, I swore I'd never read another book by him. However, this one was in the little free library in our town, so what the heck. It's been surprisingly interesting so far, at least from my vantage point as a former lawyer who couldn't wait to leave the profession. Wikipedia says, "The Los Angeles Times called the book 'an indictment of the legal system from law school to the jury’s verdict,'" and maybe that's what appealed (no pun intended) to me.

[Polly Ticks]

"The Outsiders".  My youngest son has been after me for quite some time to finally read it.

[Bigun]

I'm reading John Grisham's "The Rainmaker." After "A Time to Kill," which I thought was pretty darn awful, I swore I'd never read another book by him. However, this one was in the little free library in our town, so what the heck. It's been surprisingly interesting so far, at least from my vantage point as a former lawyer who couldn't wait to leave the profession. Wikipedia says, "The Los Angeles Times called the book 'an indictment of the legal system from law school to the jury’s verdict,'" and maybe that's what appealed (no pun intended) to me.

I read "The Rainmaker" when it first came out and liked it for the exact same reason @mountaineer It has since been made into a movie which I also enjoyed.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rainmaker_(1997_film)

[mountaineer]

Just finished The Death of Innocents: A True Story of Murder, Medicine, and High-Stake Science by Richard Firstman and Jamie Talan. It's a very well-researched account of how a New York woman almost got away with killing her five babies by blaming the deaths on Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. The book goes into all of the medical research of the time and the near-hysteria of the 1980s about SIDS, and how dishonest scientists nearly let a woman get away with murder.

On July 28, 1971, a two-and-a-half-month-old baby named Noah Hoyt died in his trailer home in a rural hamlet of upstate New York. He was the fifth child of Waneta and Tim Hoyt to die suddenly in the space of seven years. People certainly talked, but Waneta spoke vaguely of "crib death," and over time the talk faded.

Nearly two decades later a district attorney in Syracuse, New York, was alerted to a landmark paper in the literature on Sudden Infant Death Syndrome--SIDS--that had been published in a prestigious medical journal back in 1972. Written by a prominent researcher at a Syracuse medical center, the article described a family in which five children had died suddenly without explanation. The D.A. was convinced that something about this account was very wrong. An intensive quest by a team of investigators came to a climax in the spring of 1995, in a dramatic multiple-murder trial that made headlines nationwide.

But this book is not only a vivid account of infanticide revealed; it is also a riveting medical detective story. That journal article had legitimized the deaths of the last two babies by theorizing a cause for the mystery of SIDS, suggesting it could be predicted and prevented, and fostering the presumption that SIDS runs in families. More than two decades of multimillion-dollar studies have failed to confirm any of these widely accepted premises. How all this happened--could have happened--is a compelling story of high-stakes medical research in action.

Amazon

Very interesting.

[Fishrrman]

Reading now:
Witness to the Martyrdom John Taylor's Personal Account of the Last Days of the Prophet Joseph Smith by Mark H. Taylor (J. Taylor's great-great grandson)

John Taylor (along with Willard Richards) was in the jail with the Smiths when the mob attacked them on 6.27.1844. Taylor was shot about 5 times, and underwent two surgeries without anesthesia to extract bullets. He went on to serve as president of the Church after Brigham Young's death.

What really surprised me was to find out that Taylor actually wrote his recollections while at a house in Westport, Connecticut, of all places...!

[libertybele]

"The Outsiders".  My youngest son has been after me for quite some time to finally read it.

Interesting ... that was one of my son's favorite books. I had to look up the first paragraph to make sure....

"When I stepped out into the bright sunlight from the darkness of the movie house, I had only two things on my mind: Paul Newman and a ride home. I was wishing I looked like Paul Newman – he looks tough and I don't – but I guess my own looks aren't so bad. I have light- brown, almost- red hair and greenish- gray eyes."

[libertybele]

I just started to read "Fox Creek" by William Kent Krueger.

[libertybele]

My bookclub is reading "Demon Copperhead" by Barbara Kingsolver

It's so beautifully written

@Gefn -- how did you like it?  I had my hand on it at the library and put it back -- if it's worth the read, I'll reserve it.

[sneakypete]

Tom Clancy,"The Bear and the Dragon".

All ,one thousand twenty-eight pages of it.

Really good book,but don't plan on reading it in one setting.

[verga]

Tom Clancy,"The Bear and the Dragon".

All ,one thousand twenty-eight pages of it.

Really good book,but don't plan on reading it in one setting.

Loved that book, Actuall loved all of his fiction, never read any of the non-fiction.

[Gefn]

@Gefn -- how did you like it?  I had my hand on it at the library and put it back -- if it's worth the read, I'll reserve it.

@libertybele

It's one of those books where you either love it or dislike it. It's beautifully written and I enjoyed it but I wasn't head over heels about it. But it was a good read and the author writes beautifully.

If it's a library book you can always put it back if you can't get into it after 50 pages or so.

[libertybele]

@libertybele

It's one of those books where you either love it or dislike it. It's beautifully written and I enjoyed it but I wasn't head over heels about it. But it was a good read and the author writes beautifully.

If it's a library book you can always put it back if you can't get into it after 50 pages or so.

Ok, thanks @Gefn Next trip to the library, I'll see if it's available.

[sneakypete]

Loved that book, Actuall loved all of his fiction, never read any of the non-fiction.

@verga

I have read a lot of his books over the years,and had no idea he ever wrote any non-fiction books.

[jafo2010]

Regarding Tom Clancy, I would say my favorite of the books published post his death(Oct 2013) is Command Authority, which I thought was very timely, considering it is about Russia attacking Ukraine.  It came out years before the attack as I recall.  Some of his best post mortem work...LOL.

[Fishrrman]

Just finished a few days' back, my nomination for best book of 2024:



As "appropos as it gets", considering the events of the last six months...

I recommend it to every member of the forum.
Even SneakyPete will be squirming in his seat reading this one.

[Cyber Liberty]

I like Kurt's fiction, and I am finishing soon with a nonfiction book, We'll Be Back, the Fall and Rise of America.

[jafo2010]

Currently reading Bret Baier's book To Rescue the Republic.  It is a biography about Ulysses S. Grant, and is an excellent read.  I am almost halfway through, and enjoying it very much.

Where are the U.S. Grant's in today's military?  They just don't exist as far as I am concerned.  The POSs in the Obama/Biden military are destroying it with utter nonsense, DEI bullsh*t, CRT crap, transgender insanity, and on and on.  Every time I see that maggot transgender in an admiral's uniform that Wrecking Ball Joe made an Asst Sec of HHS, I want to toss my cookies.  Disgraces the uniform and the corps of people that work hard to have a career.  That idiot was handed three stars without earning a damn thing.  That is why Biden has no business being POTUS.  He is utterly clueless and the single greatest threat to this nation!

[jafo2010]

On my 4th book in the Brotherhood of War series by W.E.B. Griffin.  I have read everything he has written except this series which has nine books in the series.  What can I say, enjoying the heck out of these books.  Read the first three in little over a week. 

I now have my hands on all nine books, so I will go through them quickly.  The list includes:

The Lieutenants
The Captains
The Majors
The Colonels
The Berets
The Generals
The New Breed
The Aviators
Special Ops

[Fishrrman]

Last book:
"Typhoid Mary", by Anthony Bourdain.
Don't waste your time with this one. You can find more about Mary by going to the wikipedia page on her. The author is a cook, and after reading this book, I would never eat anything HE prepared.

Current book:
"The Fifth Horseman", by Billy Roper.
Good story so far, about people in Arkansas after a national collapse/war.
(you WON'T find this one on amazon, try a search on "the colchester collection")

[mountaineer]

"Typhoid Mary", by Anthony Bourdain.
Don't waste your time with this one.

I never could jump on the Bourdain train. I found him insufferably arrogant and annoying, and had more than a few doubts about his self-proclaimed culinary chops.

[libertybele]

Starting to read the "7 Secrets of the Eucharist" by Vinny Flynn.  It was recommended by the priest last Sunday.

[Sighlass]

Picked up my first book of 2024...

Camp of the Saints (English version)... of which it seems leftist Wiki folks (and white hate farm SPLC) didn't seem to like it much...

[Fishrrman]

"The Camp of the Saints" is a so-so book insofar as readability goes.
Its significance is in the prescience of the story, written 50+ years ago.
Jean Raspail was as prophetic as was Orwell before him.

Last book read here:
"Hasten the Day" by Billy Roper (first of a trilogy of post-American-breakup novels).

Currently reading:
"Waiting for the Sun", the second book of Roper's trilogy.

And after that:
"Wasting the Dawn", the third.

You WON'T find these on amazon.
They ARE on z-lib.org (which can only be accessed using the Tor browser at:
zlibrary24tuxziyiyfr7zd46ytefdqbqd2axkmxm4o5374ptpc52fad.onion )

[Sighlass]

You WON'T find these on amazon.
They ARE on z-lib.org (which can only be accessed using the Tor browser at:
zlibrary24tuxziyiyfr7zd46ytefdqbqd2axkmxm4o5374ptpc52fad.onion )

Wanted me to make an account and give my email to use the Zlibrary.... don't give emails out willy nilly now days. I don't remember them requiring any personal info in the past.

[Fishrrman]

sighlass wrote:
"Wanted me to make an account and give my email to use the Zlibrary.... don't give emails out willy nilly now days. I don't remember them requiring any personal info in the past."

Then create a "throwaway" email account to use.

I suggest protonmail.com
... as a good place to start.

This is a Swiss-based outfit, you can create a free account, it's encrypted both ways.
Give your account a name and use a password that has nothing to "connect" with you in real life.

Then use that for z-lib.
NOTE: You must use a browser to connect to proton's free accounts. Can't connect with a "standalone" email app.

You ain't gettin' anything without taking this step.

Actually, you might try going to "bugmenot.com" and seeing if there are any logins for z-lib that are usable, BUT -- if you find one, it's almost certainly going to be over "the daily download limit" that z-lib imposes.

[Gefn]

My book club. picked up "The Women" by Kristen Hannah

It is about a couple of women who were nurses in during the Vietnam War (fiction)

[Kamaji]

Slant, by Greg Bear.

[Kamaji]

Slant, by Greg Bear.

I have to say that Greg Bear was both an amazingly perceptive, prescient author, and partly for that reason both disturbing and depressing.  Back in the 1980s and 1990s he was coming up with things - both gadgets and social movements and mores - that are just now showing up IRL. 

[verga]

Act of Defiance by Andrews and Williams. The yare one of the ones that took over the Clancy Ryan books.

[Gefn]

I have heard good buzz about this book but I don't know if it my cuppa tea.

How ‘Eruption,’ the new Michael Crichton novel completed with James Patterson’s help, was created

When “Jurassic Park” author Michael Crichton died from cancer in 2008, he left behind numerous unfinished projects, including a manuscript he began 20 years ago about the imminent eruption of Mauna Loa, the world’s largest active volcano.

Crichton’s widow Sherri, who is CEO of CrichtonSun, tapped another millions-selling author — James Patterson— to complete the story. “Eruption” is now in stores.

Patterson is very familiar with co-authoring. In recent years he’s published a novel with Bill Clinton and Dolly Parton, and often shares writing responsibilities on his other novels.

For “Eruption,” Crichton says she gave Patterson all of her husband’s research and he came back with an outline. Some of the story needed to be brought forward to present day. “We talked probably every few weeks,” Sherri Crichton says. “It was so much fun to read. It would be hard to tell what was Crichton and what’s Patterson’s.”

https://apnews.com/article/michael-crichton-eruption-james-patterson-sherri-c3310ea1ca3ce8c39b7c584de14430fe

[jafo2010]

On my 9th book in the Brotherhood of War series by W.E.B. Griffin.  I have read everything he has written except this series which has nine books in the series.  What can I say, enjoying the heck out of these books.  Read the first three in little over a week.

The list includes:

The Lieutenants
The Captains
The Majors
The Colonels
The Berets
The Generals
The New Breed
The Aviators
Special Ops

What can I say.  I have now read everything W.E.B. Griffin has published.  Truly enjoy his books, his characters.

Just picked up the latest Clancy book.  Amazing he is still publishing 11 years after his death. 

[mountaineer]

Haven't read it yet, but plan to purchase: The Adversaries: A Story of Boston and Bunker Hill

I'm sorry to say I didn't get around to reading that one yet, but Ned is about to release another book:

Ned Ryun
@nedryun
Quick update: due to some slight delays on printing and shipping, it’s coming out now on September 17th, Constitution Day. American Leviathan: The Birth of the Administrative State and Progressive Authoritarianism.
10:57 AM · Aug 10, 2024

Amazon

[deb]

Just started “Ask Not - The Kennedys and the Women They Destroyed” by Maureen Callahan.
Not a very flattering expose of the Kennedy men, including John Jr and RFK Jr.

[Bigun]

[Cyber Liberty]

I'll be reading that next (Netflix is closed to me).  I just finished Kurt Schlichter's The Attack.  A good read if you like his fiction.  He has other books like it, too.  The Kelly Trumbull series is good.

[Bigun]

I'll be reading that next (Netflix is closed to me).  I just finished Kurt Schlichter's The Attack.  A good read if you like his fiction.  He has other books like it, too.  The Kelly Trumbull series is good.

Netflix is closed to me as well and my reading list is long already but thanks for the tip. @Cyber Liberty

[mountaineer]

As a person with deep roots in Appalachia, I found Vance's book very moving and true to life when I read it shortly after its release. I have to laugh at those who claim it was insulting to Appalachians. It wasn't. It was fair and honest.

[Bigun]

As a person with deep roots in Appalachia, I found Vance's book very moving and true to life when I read it shortly after its release. I have to laugh at those who claim it was insulting to Appalachians. It wasn't. It was fair and honest.

I'm finding it somewhat difficult to read because it has dredged up many memories from my own childhood. (Many ancestors from NE Tennessee.)

[mountaineer]

Yes, it's a bit painful. What he describes is - sad to say - very common around here and in the part of the state from which many of my ancestors came and where my parents were born.

[verga]

The Movie was excellent. Right now I have about 15 books in the reading Que

[corbe]

   Though I don't regret it, the saddest part of my Life is perhaps that 69% of what I read originates here, through you Briefers.  The other 31% originates from whores', pimps and preachers on Utube. 
   I am truly Blessed.