What book(s) are you reading currently?

[Meini Again]

The Painted House ~ John Grisham

Bought it blind at a discount shop ...3 for $5 /£5.... bout the same

I think Grisham has a hard pro-environment ecology sub-text in many of his books.
And I think he links, 'old-law' and 'emerging-law' as a means to create his dramas

In this, so far, it's a reflective tale of Ozarks and Mexican cotton pickers in the 1950s .... only just started it....but it's what I'm reading....

[Tmee2020]

Originally Posted by 73north

On War
Carl Clausewitz, Anatol Rapoport (Introducer), J. Graham (Translator)

It is a good book to read , as long as you take your time and realise
its not a book to read in a few days -
However where it shines is that it is a genuine classic and a must for every one interested in military history and history in general. - The translation from old-fashioned German to English is easily read. The main text is supplemented with articles assisting the reader in understanding the author and his times. However, this is large book, containing more than 700 pages.
You cannot 'read through' a book like this, it has to be studied over months.

I've mentioned this before, it's come up again recently, and 73north gives a very good summary of it here.

[Sir Honkers]

Slow Bullets by Alastair Reynolds. British scifi writer who reinvented Space opera and made it good.

[rlg118]

The Boer War (Illustrated Edition) by Thomas Pakenham

[Staffsyeoman]

Originally Posted by tmee2000

I've mentioned this before, it's come up again recently, and 73north gives a very good summary of it here.

Like Nostradamus, a book which can be selectively quoted and misquoted at will. I know, as it has followed me around my whole career in uniform, government and academe. Not that I'm saying you are, but the most dangerous are those who read a couple of chapters and think they are suddenly "educated soldiers".

If you're seriously interested I recommend the annotated edition with commentary by Peter Paret and Michael Howard; the latter also wrote one of those short pocket size introductions on Clausewitz in the series for Oxford University Press.

[otokonomidori]

"George VI - The Dutiful King." Sarah Bradford

[Roubignol]

The French translation of Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution (L'Entr'aide) written by Pyotr Alexeyevich Kropotkin in 1902.
Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution was republished in 1972 by the New York University Press.



The essays explore the role of mutually-beneficial cooperation and reciprocity (or "mutual aid") in the animal kingdom and human societies both past and present.
Kropotkin was a well-known zoologist, evolutionary theorist his ideas often challenged those of Charles Darwin.This book is Kropotkin's examination of mutual aid, a theory of social organization that championed cooperation and reciprocation between members of a species for the betterment of the group. Kropotkin's view challenged the beliefs of Social Darwinists, who believed competition between members of a species inherently promoted evolution and survival of the group. Kropotkin begins his book with an examination of mutual aid in the animal kingdom, where he includes examples of ants, bees, birds, large cats, wolves, and more. Kropotkin continues with a discussion of mutual aid in human societies, examining both ancient civilizations as well as modern humans.

Many biologists also consider it an important catalyst in the scientific study of cooperation.

Here is a part of the introduction:

Two aspects of animal life impressed me most during the journeys which I made in my youth in Eastern Siberia and Northern Manchuria. One of them was the extreme severity of the struggle for existence which most species of animals have to carry on against an inclement Nature; the enormous destruction of life which periodically results from natural agencies; and the consequent paucity of life over the vast territory which fell under my observation. And the other was, that even in those few spots where animal life teemed in abundance, I failed to find -- although I was eagerly looking for it -- that bitter struggle for the means of existence, among animals belonging to the same species, which was considered by most Darwinists (though not always by Darwin himself) as the dominant characteristic of struggle for life, and the main factor of evolution.

[tamsmith]

Working my way through Harry Sidebottom's Warriors of Rome series of books. Just starting the third one. Lion of the Sun.

[ultimatewarlord]

Nearly finished the latest Stuart MacBride book Now We Are Dead. This one centres on newly demoted Det. Sgt. Roberta Steele. Like his last few, it lacks a hard edge but is still highly readable. MacBride excels at byplay between police officers and it adds much dark humour to his writing.

[Wendigo]

A book about books

Paperbacks from Hell: A History of Horror Fiction from the '70s and '80s



I got through the 1970's and 1980's avidly reading at least one horror paperback a week and this brings back great memories.
What can you say about a book that has the sheer audacity to start off with a book on Nazi Leprechauns and then to try to get even more bizarre.

The only problem here is I know I will want to get hold of some of these old books again so ebay may be my next port of call.