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5 hours ago, NoName said:

he's a damn good writer. highly recommend the Danny Ryan books, highly recommend the cartel/power of the dog series and highly recommend The Force (which was optioned to be a movie and still hasn't happened yet)

oh hell yeah. i started with the power of the dog/cartel series and read the Force as well. i liked the boone daniels books too  winslow is awesome. 

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On 4/10/2024 at 10:32 PM, Delta Charlie said:

Just finished the last of Don Winslow's 3 novel set about Danny Ryan.  "City in Ruins" closes out the story and is Winslow's final book.  All his stuff is great, but this series was excellent. 

 

On 4/11/2024 at 7:43 AM, NoName said:

he's a damn good writer. highly recommend the Danny Ryan books, highly recommend the cartel/power of the dog series and highly recommend The Force (which was optioned to be a movie and still hasn't happened yet)

Just started The Power of the Dog based on these recommendations. Very good so far. 

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image.png.2dbff196bef1e3327631d0595ed0569b.png

If you are over 40 and interested in feeling like you're 65 when you are 80 I highly recommend this.  A very straightforward and actionable book about minimizing your risk of the ailments we often assume are inevitable in old age (heart disease, obesity, alzheimer's, etc).  I think anyone that reads this is likely to adopt several of the clear recommendations.  

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On 4/10/2024 at 10:32 PM, Delta Charlie said:

Just finished the last of Don Winslow's 3 novel set about Danny Ryan.  "City in Ruins" closes out the story and is Winslow's final book.  All his stuff is great, but this series was excellent. 

I’ve read most of his stuff and have just dived into his “surf” books. So far, so good. 

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On 4/11/2024 at 1:42 PM, Delta Charlie said:

oh hell yeah. i started with the power of the dog/cartel series and read the Force as well. i liked the boone daniels books too  winslow is awesome. 

What is the correct order of the border trilogy?  is it the border, the force, the cartel?

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On 4/13/2024 at 12:56 PM, Bodhi said:

image.png.2dbff196bef1e3327631d0595ed0569b.png

If you are over 40 and interested in feeling like you're 65 when you are 80 I highly recommend this.  A very straightforward and actionable book about minimizing your risk of the ailments we often assume are inevitable in old age (heart disease, obesity, alzheimer's, etc).  I think anyone that reads this is likely to adopt several of the clear recommendations.  

Might save your life, too.  Peter Attia's podcast convinced me to get a calcium screening, which led to a stent placement.

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Slow Down by Kohei Saito, Japanese wannabe Karl Marx.  He thinks we in the Global North should all feel terribly guilty for our gluttonously destructive and imperialist lives that exploit all the sufferers in the Global South; and that as a result capitalism should be dismantled and replaced with communism.  Guess he forgot to ask China.

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Finished the Herold book above, Disillusioned: Five Families And The Unraveling Of America's Suburbs (2024). IMO, this was a good read. The author takes five families from various locations and socioeconomic and racial demographics, and explores the scene both large and small that has been unfolding since WWII. He got the interest in writing it when he went back to his own childhood home outlying Pittsburgh and he interweaves the history of each of the five communities, families, and the nation into the piece. Whether you're urban, rural, or a burb dweller, it's a good read.

Just for extra:

The five families (pseudonyms were used save one) were from Penn Hills (PA), Gwinnett County (GA), Evanston (IL), Compton (CA), and Lucas, (TX). The family from Lucas used to live in Plano, and then moved to Lucas.

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On 2/25/2024 at 2:33 PM, Mrs Whiggins said:

Since it had been mentioned here, I checked this one out and have begun reading:

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Finishing it up.  It was fine.  Depressing on many levels, but LW is such a good writer it moved along lickety split.  Yeah, it was kinda name-droppy but those are his friends, so there.

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Just finished this:

image.png.cbf47cdfdd3066a1e3cb7f81112caf47.png

A minute-by-minute account of a potential North Korean nuclear strike on the U.S., the subsequent response, and the aftermath. Pretty chilling to think about how quickly the world as we know it could end. This quote from Nikita Khrushchev stood out: "the living will envy the dead."

Seems to be well researched and entirely plausible. 

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On 4/23/2024 at 8:53 AM, Seasick Sailor said:

Just finished this:

image.png.cbf47cdfdd3066a1e3cb7f81112caf47.png

A minute-by-minute account of a potential North Korean nuclear strike on the U.S., the subsequent response, and the aftermath. Pretty chilling to think about how quickly the world as we know it could end. This quote from Nikita Khrushchev stood out: "the living will envy the dead."

Seems to be well researched and entirely plausible. 

She was on Dan Carlin's pod a couple of weeks ago. She was a really good interview.

Terrifying to think about. 

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1 hour ago, Post Oak said:

Nope. The Goodreads reviews are really positive and it's on my list.  AGIM was great.  Really loved RofC.  Couldn't finish Lincoln Highway. Didn't care for that at all. 

 

Same for me regarding his other books. I thought Lincoln Highway was a dud.  Thought AGIM was perhaps the one of the best books I ever read. 

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On 4/23/2024 at 8:53 AM, Seasick Sailor said:

Just finished this:

image.png.cbf47cdfdd3066a1e3cb7f81112caf47.png

A minute-by-minute account of a potential North Korean nuclear strike on the U.S., the subsequent response, and the aftermath. Pretty chilling to think about how quickly the world as we know it could end. This quote from Nikita Khrushchev stood out: "the living will envy the dead."

Seems to be well researched and entirely plausible. 

That popped up in my amazon recommendations.  I guess I'll give it a try.

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This was recommended to me from someone. Maybe here.  I'm really enjoying it so far.  The first chapter is one of the best first chapters I've ever read.  Instantly hooked.

Things-They-Carried-Cover.jpg

 

Spoiler

Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried (1990) is considered one of the finest books about the Vietnam War. Far from a combat story of pride and glory, it is a compassionate tale of the American soldier, brimming with raw honesty and thoughtful reflection.

The book's narrator follows a platoon of infantrymen through the jungles of Vietnam. We see them trudge through the muck of a constant downpour, get hit by sniper fire, pull body parts out of a tree, laugh while they tell their stories to each other, and fall silent when faced with making sense of it all—both in the moment and twenty years later.

The book is split into a lush mosaic of vignettes drawn from O'Brien's own experiences. The title story describes what the soldiers must lug with them—both literally and figuratively—as they march: food, canteens, flak jackets, and weapons, as well as grief, terror, secrets, and memories. In another story, O'Brien tells of a young medic who brings his high-school sweetheart to his aid station in the mountains of Vietnam, chronicling her transformation from an innocent girl in a pink sweater to a cold night stalker who dons a necklace of human tongues. Yet another story tells of a soldier back from the war who drives his Chevy around his Iowa hometown, struggling to find meaning in his new life.

Central to the book is O'Brien's unique style, which blurs the lines between fact and fiction, then examines how and why he does just that. O'Brien challenges readers to ponder larger philosophical questions about truth and memory, and brings the reader closer to the emotional core of the men's experiences. "For the common soldier," O'Brien writes in "How to Tell a True War Story," "war has the feel—the spiritual texture—of a great ghostly fog, thick and permanent. There is no clarity. Everything swirls. The old rules are no longer binding, the old truths no longer true."

The Things They Carried is not just a tale of war, and the book's themes are no less relevant today than they were decades ago. This award-winning work is a brutal, sometimes funny, often profound narrative about the human heart—how it fares under pressure and what it can endure.

 

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On 4/20/2024 at 11:27 AM, ClubWhatever said:

Slow Down by Kohei Saito, Japanese wannabe Karl Marx.  He thinks we in the Global North should all feel terribly guilty for our gluttonously destructive and imperialist lives that exploit all the sufferers in the Global South; and that as a result capitalism should be dismantled and replaced with communism.  Guess he forgot to ask China.

Saito is a proponent of "degrowth", which to put it delicately, is the modern-day equivalent of Malthusianism. Even Marx supported communism because he thought it would accelerate growth, not stop it. https://www.noahpinion.blog/p/people-are-realizing-that-degrowth

Anyway, I recently picked up Lords of the Deccan at a book sale. It's a compelling and engaging history of South India, covering the 6th century to the 12th century. During this time period, South India was primarily ruled by three dynasties - the Chalukya dynasty of Badami, the Rashtrakuta dynasty of Manyakheta, and the Chola dynasty of Thanjavur - interspersed by periods of war and conflict between many smaller kingdoms.

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On 4/26/2024 at 3:01 PM, Post Oak said:

This was recommended to me from someone. Maybe here.  I'm really enjoying it so far.  The first chapter is one of the best first chapters I've ever read.  Instantly hooked.

Things-They-Carried-Cover.jpg

 

  Hide contents

Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried (1990) is considered one of the finest books about the Vietnam War. Far from a combat story of pride and glory, it is a compassionate tale of the American soldier, brimming with raw honesty and thoughtful reflection.

The book's narrator follows a platoon of infantrymen through the jungles of Vietnam. We see them trudge through the muck of a constant downpour, get hit by sniper fire, pull body parts out of a tree, laugh while they tell their stories to each other, and fall silent when faced with making sense of it all—both in the moment and twenty years later.

The book is split into a lush mosaic of vignettes drawn from O'Brien's own experiences. The title story describes what the soldiers must lug with them—both literally and figuratively—as they march: food, canteens, flak jackets, and weapons, as well as grief, terror, secrets, and memories. In another story, O'Brien tells of a young medic who brings his high-school sweetheart to his aid station in the mountains of Vietnam, chronicling her transformation from an innocent girl in a pink sweater to a cold night stalker who dons a necklace of human tongues. Yet another story tells of a soldier back from the war who drives his Chevy around his Iowa hometown, struggling to find meaning in his new life.

Central to the book is O'Brien's unique style, which blurs the lines between fact and fiction, then examines how and why he does just that. O'Brien challenges readers to ponder larger philosophical questions about truth and memory, and brings the reader closer to the emotional core of the men's experiences. "For the common soldier," O'Brien writes in "How to Tell a True War Story," "war has the feel—the spiritual texture—of a great ghostly fog, thick and permanent. There is no clarity. Everything swirls. The old rules are no longer binding, the old truths no longer true."

The Things They Carried is not just a tale of war, and the book's themes are no less relevant today than they were decades ago. This award-winning work is a brutal, sometimes funny, often profound narrative about the human heart—how it fares under pressure and what it can endure.

 

My daughter read that while she was in high school.  She asked me to read it, too, so that I could understand some of the questions that she had.  I found it to be a very fine book that tracked perfectly with the Vietnam vets with whom I served.  I need to read it again.

She nearly threw up when I explained the soldiers singing "Lemon Tree" while recovering their buddy's remains.

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I just read that chapter last night.  My mouth dropped open when I read that part.

It's almost like the book is a series of short stories.  I'm about 1/3 of the way through so far.  It's an easy read. There's not a lot of fat in his prose. 

The chapter with the old man, Elroy Berdahl, was just a wonderful read.  I could've read another 20 pages on that story.

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