What are we reading?

[Random]

Books I'm not too proud to admit to reading: pretty much anything in the WH40K Black Library.

Just finished "The Killing Ground" by Graham McNeill. He may be Scottish but it sounds like Benedict Cumberbatch is narrating in my head.

I thought the "Eisenhorn" omnibus was pretty decent. Didn't like the unhappy ending, of course, but that's me.

[Yw-slayer]

Books I'm not too proud to admit to reading: pretty much anything in the WH40K Black Library.

Yeah, I used to read the Robotech books. I was, however, less than 13 years old.

[George]

Heard on audio book recently:

"Eisenhower In War And Peace" by Jean Edward Smith. Must have been a long book - 24 audio CDs. A full bio of Ike from boy to West Point to general to president and retirement.

This next is not a book but a collection of BBC radio stories. This must have been a regular series for some time: "The History Of The World In 100 Objects From The British Museum" by Neil MacGregor. Excellent. Very long, too at 20 CDs. They cover everything from sharpened rocks used to scrape meat from bones to credit cards. The development of human technology is a fascinating story, and it made this listener feel very small and insignificant.

Biggest discovery of 2014 for me so far: Instead of driving around to various libraries, I can simply download the audio content from the libraries' websites. The audio files work for a couple weeks and then become disabled and are "returned" to the libary for others to "borrow". This has probably been going on for years but I just discovered it while trying to figure out where I could drive to pick up specific audio books.

The rest of this post is all about Jack Reacher, so scroll on by if you don't care about his modern pulp fiction adventures.

I finished "Die Trying", the second Jack Reacher novel (in order of publication). I'm currently reading - yes, reading a book from the used book store - "Persuader" by Lee Child. It's true what they say - this book is literally difficult to put down. It's the first Reacher novel I've read and not heard and like the rest, the action just never stops and to put down the book is to stop having fun...or being disgusted, as I occasionally am in Reacher's world.

I have three more to go after "Persuader". Also for Reacher fans, the 19th novel is supposed to come out in August 2014, titled "Personal", I think.

Oh, almost forgot - at a library recently, I also borrowed the trade paperback copy of "The Affair" because it had "bonus material inside!" - the short story "Second Son". This story has all the elements of a Reacher novel and, along with a couple other "flashback" novels, shows me that we don't need to fear Reacher getting too old to be exciting. Lee Child can always go back in time and make him young again.

Here's the blurb about "Second Son" from Amazon:

Spoiler:

Okinawa, 1974. Even at thirteen, Jack Reacher knows how to outwit and overpower anyone who stands in his way. And as the new kid in town, that’s pretty much everyone. His family has come to the Pacific with his father, who’s preparing for a top-secret Marine Corps operation. After receiving a rude welcome from the local military brats, Reacher and his older brother, Joe, intend to teach them a lesson they won’t forget. But it’s soon clear that there’s more at stake than pride. When his family’s future appears to come crumbling down, it’s the youngest Reacher who rises to the occasion with all the decisive cunning and bravura that will one day be his deadly trademark.

There are a couple other short stories online at my libraries - "High Heat", "Deep Down", and "Not A Drill".

Also, what's up with this? Other authors are writing Reacher stories too?

http://www.amazon.com/Dont-Know-Jack...ZEK5D1YN0MTQ#_



"It’s been a while since we first met Lee Child’s Jack Reacher in Killing Floor. Fifteen years and sixteen novels later, Reacher still lives off the grid, until trouble finds him, and then he does whatever it takes, much to the delight of readers and the dismay of villains. Now someone big is looking for him. Who? And why? Hunting Jack Reacher is a dangerous business, as FBI Special Agents Kim Otto and Carlos Gaspar are about to find out. Otto and Gaspar are by-the-book hunters who know when to break the rules; Reacher is a stone cold killer. Reacher is a wanted man, but is he their friend or their enemy? Only the secrets hidden in Margrave, Georgia will tell them."

[George]

Since I last posted here, I've finished the last Reacher novels that I hadn't read yet - "Running Blind", "Bad Luck and Trouble", "Echo Burning", and the short story "High Heat". I still have a couple more short stories to find and read to complete the list. The new Reacher novel "Personal" comes out pretty soon - early September, I think.

I swing back and forth between history and fiction. I just finished 1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created. Enjoyed it and learned a lot I didn't know about the worldwide re-distribution of diseases, plants, animals, insects, and other things that crossed oceans and made the world what we know today, and how the "globalization" started by the Columbian Exchange is still continuing and evolving.

Veering back to fiction, I'm about to start The Martian: A Novel by Andy Weir

Blurb from back of book and at Amazon that describes the basic plot:

Spoiler:

"Six days ago, astronaut Mark Watney became one of the first people to walk on Mars.

Now, he's sure he'll be the first person to die there.

After a dust storm nearly kills him and forces his crew to evacuate while thinking him dead, Mark finds himself stranded and completely alone with no way to even signal Earth that he’s alive—and even if he could get word out, his supplies would be gone long before a rescue could arrive.

Chances are, though, he won't have time to starve to death. The damaged machinery, unforgiving environment, or plain-old "human error" are much more likely to kill him first.

But Mark isn't ready to give up yet. Drawing on his ingenuity, his engineering skills—and a relentless, dogged refusal to quit—he steadfastly confronts one seemingly insurmountable obstacle after the next. Will his resourcefulness be enough to overcome the impossible odds against him?"

[Random]

That's a great book; read it a few weeks ago.

[speedpimp]

A trip to a local place called Bargain Books netted me copies of The Ultimate History of Mercedes and Irish History. The MB book is a great companion to the BMW book I picked up a few years back.

[JoshInKC]

1493 is a really good text for the public. If you haven't already, I recommend his earlier book 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus as well.

[George]

Just finished on audiobook "Enduring Courage: Ace Pilot Eddie Rickenbacker and the Dawn of the Age of Speed" by John F. Ross.

Now starting "Fighting The Flying Circus" by Eddie Rickenbacker('s ghost writer, according to Ross), downloaded free (and legally) from librovox.org.

[Random]

Now starting "Fighting The Flying Circus" by Eddie Rickenbacker('s ghost writer, according to Ross), downloaded free (and legally) from librovox.org.

Short, but interesting.

I'm currently working my way through a half-dozen books in L.E. Modesitt's "Saga of Recluse" Chaos/Order series. These books fill in a lot of the pre-history of the first five books in the series.

I picked the books up at a library sale for 50 cents each.

[sandydandy]

Just downloaded 'Arabian Nights' (aka 'One Thousand and One Nights') off Kindle for free. Free! Can't beat that deal!