What are you reading now - and then

[sukumvit boy]

Tripwire....Lee Child

Jack Reacher novel

Long time Reacher fan . Fortunately ,his latest novel is released each year to coincide with my winter holiday in Nov.-Dec. Good airport / airplane reading.

[BJ4TS]

I tend to read books from one author at a time. Currently reading the Mitch Rapp series by Vince Flynn.

[sukumvit boy]

"Killers of the Flower Noon , The Osage Murders and the Birth if the FBI"
http://www.amazon.com/Killers-Flower.../dp/0385534248
http://charlierose.com/videos/30603

[sukumvit boy]

John McHugo, Syria: A Recent History (Saki, 2015)
This is a narrative history of Syria that begins at the end of the First World War, and ends circa December 2014. The final chapter does have the superficial problem all contemporary chapters have, not least in a time of war when much can change, but this is an excellent introduction to Syrian history and a worthy successor to the studies by the late Patrick Seale. If you want to know how Syria developed into the mess it is today, a combination of internal greed and autocracy, and external meddling and often complete indifference to Syria's genuine rights, this book will tell you. If you want a more analytical study Raymond Hinnebusch is recommended but this is a welcome addition to a rather small core of books on this extraordinary country, diverse in geography and culture and religion, so let down by small minds with big bank accounts to protect. At my age I don't expect to see Syria or Aleppo again, and that alone is a negative testament to the savages who litter this country with their violence and criminal neglect.

TKS , Stavros , for the John McHugo recommendation. I got a copy of Syria: A History of the Last Hundred Years and found it to be so helpful in untangling the complex history of Syria and how it got to the present condition. A fascinating history of how Syria's unique geographical location as a cross roads for Asian , African , Middle Eastern and Western cultures and outside meddling led to the present sorry state of affairs.
http://www.amazon.com/Syria-History-.../dp/1620970457

[broncofan]

Long time Reacher fan . Fortunately ,his latest novel is released each year to coincide with my winter holiday in Nov.-Dec. Good airport / airplane reading.

It took me a while to get into Lee Child books. At first I was annoyed that Reacher was so easily able to beat everyone up and seemed almost infallible in his deductive process. But I got over that. Child knows an impressive amount about our military, law enforcement, combat tactics, weapons, mechanics. Once I got into them, I went through them all very quickly. And now I don't have any left until the next one.

But I'm now out of authors for the fast paced style of book I like. I've read all the pulp fiction ones..I think we talked about Jim Thompson...I've read all Ross Macdonald....and am having trouble finding anyone new in the mystery genre. If you have anyone to recommend me, please let me know!!!

[qwerty81]

at home, i'm reading a history of the confederate navy by raimondo luraghi, mr midshipman hornblower by c.s. forester, and then on the ship i'm reading shield and sword the us navy in the persian gulf war... or something like that.

[Laphroaig]

But I'm now out of authors for the fast paced style of book I like. I've read all the pulp fiction ones..I think we talked about Jim Thompson...I've read all Ross Macdonald....and am having trouble finding anyone new in the mystery genre. If you have anyone to recommend me, please let me know!!!

Maybe not quite in the same style, but try Craig Russell's Lennox series about a Canadian PI, set in Glasgow shortly after WW2. Also, have you considered the Joe Pickett books by C J Box?

[josehip]

This is a good thread. So I will post this here.
I need some tips about Some really good Queer/non-binary authors to read (but not books). Like blogs, sites or medium. Transwomen, cis women, WOC or whatever.
Any help?

[sukumvit boy]

It took me a while to get into Lee Child books. At first I was annoyed that Reacher was so easily able to beat everyone up and seemed almost infallible in his deductive process. But I got over that. Child knows an impressive amount about our military, law enforcement, combat tactics, weapons, mechanics. Once I got into them, I went through them all very quickly. And now I don't have any left until the next one.

But I'm now out of authors for the fast paced style of book I like. I've read all the pulp fiction ones..I think we talked about Jim Thompson...I've read all Ross Macdonald....and am having trouble finding anyone new in the mystery genre. If you have anyone to recommend me, please let me know!!!

Hey broncofan , yes the Reacher series are addictive page turners and Lee Child actually provides a lot of fascinating behind the scenes factual information.
I would recommend the detective Harry Bosh series by Michael Connelly , fast paced ,and if you like his style there are 20 of them now .
In a more retro vein , I enjoyed the is hard boiled detective novels of Dashiell Hammett . Including The Thin Man and The Maltese Falcon
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dashiell_Hammett

I'm also a long time Lawrence Block fan and his Matthew Scudder mystery series as well as his more lighthearted and amusing Bernie Rhodenbarr burglar series . The Bernie character is a New York City used and scholarly book store owner by day and a burglar by night . Lawrence Block was named a Grand Master of The Mystery Writers of America since 1994 and I envy you if you haven't read any of his books yet.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawrence_Block

[Stavros]

This week is Banned Books Week, and it is of some interest that the official website lists 10 'Challenged' books that have been banned from libraries and schools, and that most of them have been banned for sexual content (often LGBTQIAPN/B related).

It is hard to believe some of the comments that have been made when either banning or recommending the banning of books, and this just in the USA where

The first ban of Mark Twain’s American classic (The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn) in Concord, MA in 1885 called it “trash and suitable only for the slums.”

Incredibly, to me, Leaves of Grass became a victim: New York Society for the Suppression of Vice found the sensuality of the text disturbing. Caving to pressure, booksellers in New York, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania conceded to advising their patrons not to buy the “filthy” book.

And even Moby-Dick was harpooned when a Texas school district banned the book from its Advanced English class lists because it “conflicted with their community values” in 1996. (1996!!)

The UK has had a long list of banned books, the most famous being DH Lawrence's Lady Chatterley's Lover, and the first copy of George Orwell's Down and Out in Paris and London I read was censored so that words like 'Bugger' and 'Bloody' were blanked out.
My personal favourite has been Hubert Selby Jr's Last Exit to Brooklyn which became a landmark case in obscenity trials, losing in court but winning on appeal. It was the first time I had encountered a graphic description of a man having sex with a transgendered woman, and one that was positive and thrilling also. It is a wildly outrageous book but written with great verve and a sense of place, being the Brooklyn dockyards of the 1950s.

http://www.bannedbooksweek.org/censo...tshapedamerica

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