Which book are you currently reading?

[Riki]

I'm rereading The Hunger Games series.. I know the movies so well that I forget what happened in the books.. I finished the first book, The Hunger Games, and I'm just about to start the second, Catching Fire..

[kitkatz]

I just finished Bill O'Reilly's Killing Jesus.  The history of the time period was very interesting.  I actually learned quite a bit form it.

[Jean]

 Oddly enough, since I am a girl, I enjoy the blood, thunder, etc type of books that most men would enjoy. Just finished "The Shack" As i read it I thought it was so familiar that I had already read it, but then I knew I had not. There are not too many books wherein one of the main characters refers to God as Papa.and her name is Nan but I am certain that one book I read which was about a young man who was in a God-awful accident and while unconscious, a close to him female friend also named Nan and also who referred to God as Papa. Wierd. Lots of people think "The shack is very controversial, I dont. I just think it is a way to make things more clear to the non-believers. And now, back to another Jack Reacher Novel. Oh how oh how could they make shrimpy Tom Cruise as 6 ft 4, 250 pound Jack. Baffles my mind.

[kristina]

The Murder Of Marilyn Monroe. Case Closed by Jay Margolis and Richard Buskin.
This in-depth evidence-based exposé of Marilyn Monroe's death, if true,
amounts to one of the most horrendous stories of the 20th century
and it raises many serious questions about the character of those who wield enormous political power.

[Riki]

I just finished Heiress of Collinwood by Lara Parker.  It's the 4th book in her series based on the television show, Dark Shadows, that was on in the late 1960s-early 1970s.  Her books continue the story where the show left off when it ended.  Lara Parker actually played Angelique in the show, the witch who cursed Barnabas Collins to live out eternity as a vampire when he rejected her

[kristina]

Robert Mazur: The Infiltrator : Undercover in the World of Drug Barons and Dirty Banks.
The true story of how one man risked his life to bring down the bad guys.
Bob Musella was a mob-connected "big shot" whose friends included the great and the good of the international underworld - corrupt bankers, tax cheats and drug barons... Together they partied in expensive hotels, drank the world's finest champagnes, drove Rolls-Royce convertibles and flew in private jets...
But : in reality Bob Musella was Robert Mazur, a U.S federal agent fronting an undercover operation inside global dirty banks and drug-trafficking empires stretching back to Pablo Escobar.
Full of near misses and harrowing escapes, The Infiltrator is the true story of how, in one of the most dramatic stings in history, Robert Mazur helped to bring them all down.
This is a thrilling book to get into & investigate during "you know what" and this book also succeeds in making 4 hours almost feel like half an hour ... 

[Riki]

I bought the first 3 books of the Vampire Chronicles (Interview with the Vampire, The Vampire Lestat, and Queen of the Damned) and I will start reading them when I feel my eye has healed, since I had cataract surgery on it a couple of weeks ago.

[iolaire]

Full of near misses and harrowing escapes, The Infiltrator is the true story of how, in one of the most dramatic stings in history, Robert Mazur helped to bring them all down.

Thanks ordered it from the library.

[cattlekid]

I am attempting to read the first Game of Thrones book.  It is long.  It is detailed.  There are a lot of names.  I have never seen the television show. 

My friends who have seen the television show think I'm nuts.  But I'm in a reading challenge where one book in 2017 has to be over 800 pages so here I am.  I am about 55% complete. 

All I can say is Winter is Coming.  I seem to be feeling the most kinship with the House of Stark.  Not sure if that is a good thing or not.

[kitkatz]

Currently reading Book One of the Heritage Trilogy- Semper Mars by Ian Douglas

[kristina]

Full of near misses and harrowing escapes, The Infiltrator is the true story of how, in one of the most dramatic stings in history, Robert Mazur helped to bring them all down.

Thanks ordered it from the library.

Good luck iolaire, with reading The Infiltrator by Robert Mazur. I could read it only very slowly and some of the information was rather difficult to "digest"...

I am currently reading Inside Hitler's Bunker by Joachim Fest. By 1945 Hitler had developed a vast concrete Bunker of interconnected chambers thirty-three feet beneath the surface of Berlin. In the last months of the war, while desperate battles raged in the ruins above, the Bunker was to become the setting for the most dramatic final act in modern history: the collapse of the Third Reich. In this compelling new reconstruction, one of Europe's greatest historian of Nazism, Joachim Fest describes in vivid detail the claustrophobic atmosphere of those bitter last days, when druggend and enfeebled, Hitler veered wildly between hysterical despair and lunatic optimism. Using newly available material and drawing on years of meticulous research, Joachim Fest shows us how the Nazi regime finally disintegrated amidst acts of betrayal, recrimination and suicide. He also reveals how these desperate last scenes offer fresh insight into the true nature of Hitler and his entourage.
An interesting book to read about this dark part of 20th century history and also very shocking & revealing to learn about a "bunch" of completely insignificant, banal, stupid and pathetic people, who were absolutely obsessed with the prospect of power   ...  It is also pretty obvious, that a newly discovered power of "political" cinema-propaganda & influence plus misuse of news-reels etc., detailed worked-out political newspaper-propaganda etc. unfortunately came to their aid and, at the time worked right into their hands...

[kristina]

P.S. One of the most loathsome moments, when reading Inside Hitler's Bunker by Joachim Fest occurs, when one learns, that Hitler very early gave orders to destroy the whole of Germany, all towns, cities, cottages, all factories, buildings and - most of all -  all of the German people. Hitler considered the German people unworthy of living, because they did not come up to scratch and did not obey as he thought they should.
The leading question is now, whether or not these orders were actually carried out, because in April 1945 most of Germany and its people were very much destroyed.
The reader also becomes very much aware, that Hitler, as an Austrian, from the very start hated the German people and their culture, their classical music, their classical composers, Nobel Price writers etc. 
And it would almost appear that he and his cronies came along with only one purpose in mind : to destroy it all...
A most interesting book to read and very thought provoking...

[Cupcake]

I loved A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles, so I had to read his earlier book Rules of Civility. Both are beautifully written. I also loved Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders, but my sister said it was 'dumb'. It was just a little out there for her.

[BoltWiz1973]

[iolaire]

Just read "A Beautiful Work In Progress" by Mirna Valerio. Her story of how she became the "Fat Girl Running" author/public figure by becoming an Ultra Marathon runner and walker.  It's always inspiring to read about people who do huge multiple marathon runs. Even more so to read her story from the perspective of a fat person, she is still large and always will be but she is an athlete who is accepting of her body and an inspiration to others.

[cattlekid]

I am currently reading The Post-Birthday World by Lionel Shriver.  It's a fiction story about a woman who maybe is having an affair with a friend of her husband, a famous snooker player in Britain.  I say maybe, because I am 20% of the way through the book and it is written where every other chapter gives an alternative view of the situation, but all chapters are written in the point of view of the woman.  So in half the chapters, she's in the middle of the torrid affair, and in the other half of the chapters, it's like the affair never happened.  It's slightly annoying to constantly shift gears but it's a compelling story and I'm very curious to know how it all comes to an end.

[smartcookie]

I am reading The Story Teller by Jodi Piccoult.  I love her books!  This one revolves around World War II and is very intriguing so far.

[Riki]

Umm.. Accounting Principles... *L*  I have a test tomorrow... *G*

[Paul]

Currently reading "Pier Review". It is supposed to be an account of a trip round the coast of Britain and a review of every British seaside pier still standing. It is well written but they are doing it in a sort of "post modernist, piers are really naff so we are only doing this for book for a laugh" style which somewhat ruins it.

[MooseMom]

Ahab's Wife.

I currently count 15 books on my shelves that I have yet to start.  So much good reading for the snowy days ahead! 

[cassandra]

Now reading A mindfulness guide to the Frazzled by Ruby Wax.
I'm half way and sofar is teaching me lots of things about the brain and it's functions (including research publications etc) and what Mindfulness and meditation can do for the brain/body.


Well written and quite a lot about her own life and bipolar disorder too.

[MooseMom]

I've always liked Ruby Wax.  I didn't know until just recently that she is bi-polar.  I'll have to check out her book.  I do have a book of hers dating back to the 1980s!

[kristina]

Alison Hewitt : Stalked
A terrifying true story. Alison Hewitt was in the midst of training as a GP (General Practitioner) when she met Al Amin Dhalla through an exclusive  dating agency. He was a seemingly respectable Asian businessman from Canada, so attentive and caring, it was easy to ignore the warning signs ... until he started, step by step, to take over her life and the life of her mother, the life of her mother's new husband and the life of her brothers. Six months after they first met, Al Amin's web of lies started to unravel and Alison became aware that he had a very sinister side and a criminal record for violence. When she tried to end the relationship, the unthinkable happened and she found herself the victim of an escalating campaign of terror. Even when Al Amin was found with knives and guns, the police had no power to detain him. Nobody could have imagined the events that were to follow, as Alison was left fearing for her life. When Al Amin tried to burn down her mother's house, the family was finally being put under police protection. There was a court case and Al Amin was put into prison from where he continued to plan further destruction.
An interesting, gripping book to read during "you know what" ... and ... at the end of the book one learns that Alison Hewitt is now working as a medical doctor and she is now in a new relationship ... and .... her new man's name happens to be Al as well...  not quite sure, what to think  ...

Alison Hewitt family awarded £130,000 for stalker failings - BBC News
www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-sussex-28207651

[cattlekid]

I am almost finished with Big Little Lies.  Have not seen the TV series and am desperate to find out how it ends!!

[kristina]

Tales From Shakespeare by Charles & Mary Lamb, illustrated by N.M. Price. (This edition was published in 1905)
A wonderful book in which everything written by Shakespeare is explained within compact little essays.
This book has been written by two dedicated Shakespeare-scholars and is great fun to read.

P.S. The first edition of this book was published in 1807 and in it has been mentioned that "diligent care has been taken to select such words as might least interrupt the effect of the beautiful English tongue in which Shakespeare wrote: therefore, words introduced into our language since his time have been as far as possible avoided."