What are you Reading Right Now?

[BruceTeam]

I enjoyed reading “Travels with Lovers: A Collection of Short Stories & Poems” by Steve Dreben.

The opening story, “The Tower” gives you a preview of what you are going to read in this amazing reading journey through the mind of this very intelligent writer.  He takes you through the story making you guess about what is going to happen next as the writer dramatically describes emotions and intense scenes of very high drama in a relaxed yet foreboding manner which hurriedly and unexpectedly leads you into the crushing ending where I was wishing I could reach out and stop it.   

The author has unique talent painting pictures with words. An excerpt from another story, “The Mongoose and the Python”:

 “She was yellow, gray and blue-gold. Her scales reflected the embers of the sun’s surface and yet she blended in perfectly with the jungle fauna. Her species had developed hunting skills over hundreds of thousands of years, perhaps millions of years, which made her one of the great predators in this dense terrain.”

The stories are extremely entertaining and show the versatility and brilliance of this author.

Poetry follows his stories and again the author is an artist with words,

“The Dancer

She glided across the floor,

moved in perfect rhythm like a Cheetah forward to prey.

The music filled the room, her sleek body “confronted us”

internal genuflections via muscular perfection…externally crafted….

We…we were allowed a place…

a place where absolution, commitment and connection meet…

where stunning sculpted arms reached for the sun,

spinning and leaping to the driving pulses of “The Rites of Spring.”

Caught in her spell…we gazed at her as she spun and twisted,

in one direction and another…

rapidly she danced with the speed of a champion boxer …

speeded coordination…in an exquisite unction of canonized rhythms… “and time stops.”

I enjoyed this author’s writing very much. He’s brilliant with his story organization and an excellent writer. Highly recommended!

On the lighter side, 

Wayne Willson’s “Time Particle: Sophie's Story (Volume 1)” is a brilliant dark humor- satire set in the year 2131. I hadn’t read a book that made me laugh so hard since reading Joseph Heller’s “Catch 22” many years ago. 
 
I laughed until I cried when I read this hysterically funny book. It started off a bit rough for me since I thought the book was going to be pure science fiction and didn’t expect to be humorous.  The story is about various villains chasing the brilliant Sophie (“It’s not paranoia if they really are after you”) who discovered the secret to time travel, and the villains want her time travel secrets. The villains chase and kidnap her, and JoJo is out to save her along with a cast of amazing, amusing, and uproariously funny characters, with many changing scenes leading up to a great “let’s get Junior” (one of the villains) climax ending. 

My favorite character was a severely stern-faced mother named Hattie, who could shoot such grave looks that would “make a dead man sweat,” or “turn Satan into a saint.”  I enjoyed the way the good characters on the brink of defeat turned the situation around giving retribution to greedy villains – especially how Margot, the gorgeous female robot, dealt with Junior.  Marty the monkey was amazing as well.  Greedy, backstabbing James hilariously got what he deserved in the converter machine scene. I could go on and on but I don’t want to give too much detail since I don’t want to spoil anything.

I was sad to see the book end so I’m going to read it again and will be looking forward to reading the sequel. 

LMAO

 

[nevets88]

Don't think I'm going to finish Don Quixote, will give it a little more, get to page 100, call it quits.

Also reading Tim Wu's The Curse of Bigness and Clive Thompson's Smarter Than You Think.

[saevel25]

Foundation - Redefine your core, conquer back pain, and. move with confidence
by Dr. Eric Goodman and Peter Park

[imsys0042]

Just Finished Fitness Junkie, a hilarious take on the NYC fitness scene and how over the top things can be.

[Squid_350]

On 1/3/2019 at 8:26 AM, Foot Wedge said:

Recently finished The Last of the Mohicans.  Next book will be The Line Becomes a River by Francisco Cantu.  I got a Kindle for Christmas so I'm going to start adding books to it soon. 

Kindles absolutely rock but you'll go broke building a library if you subscribe to Amazon's daily kindle deals newsletter. 

[HJJ003]

I have just started, Anatomy of a Golf Course, by Tom Doak. I’m turning into a bit of architecture nerd so I heard this is a good read for those really just starting to get a passion for it. 

[nevets88]

Reading this makes me want to go to some indoor climbing place and just give it a go. I'm afraid if I try, I might get hooked. Not that I have any time for starting another sport.

[Patch]

Today I read a few pages of "Total Golf" by M. Adams, and T.J. Tomasi (?). It's one of the older, good books on playing golf. It's one of the few books on golf that I kept when I down sized my library. 

Lots of little useful tid bits on golf in this book. I have a lot of respect for Tomasi's thoughts on playing golf. 

I am not sure it's still available, which is too bad if true. 

Edited March 20, 2019 by Patch

[Diece]

Chatting With Matisse - The Lost 1941 Interview.

For those unaware, Henri Matisse is a famous artist that is on the same level of Picasso when it comes to modern art.

It's a very interesting read as you get to see inside the mind of a great artist and the presentation of the book is really well done. Matisse's works really pop on the high quality glossy paper.

 

[commishbob]

I alternate between biographies (presidents/sports figures) and historical fiction. This past weekend I got to meet former major leaguer Eddie Robinson. He served in the Navy during WWII and then played 13 seasons of baseball in the American League. He played for 7 of the 8 AL teams that existed during his career. He was a favorite of my Yankees fan father who always told me Robinson was under-appreciated as a ballplayer. He was pretty spry for a 98-year-old and was gracious enough to sign a copy of his book to me. Many years ago I came across one of his game-used gloves that he had signed at some point. I have it in storage and wish I had thought to dig it out and bring it along.

I've just started in on his book and so far it's pretty entertaining.

[ACJL]

I just read "Perfectly Executed", a true crime book. It's about a case that was featured on a Netflix show called The Confession Tapes. The show depicts two guys, Sebastian Burns and Atif Rafay, and shows how they were confessing to the murder of Rafay's parents to a "Mr. Big" - the head of a criminal organization they had joined, not knowing that person was an undercover cop. The show raises questions about how the confession was elicited from the two teenagers - they were told by Mr. Big that the cops had finally found some DNA evidence that tied the boys to the crime, but Mr. Big said he had connections within law enforcement who could destroy the DNA evidence for them. In return he wanted their confession. So the boys confessed.

After watching that show I briefly thought the boys were innocent. At the time of the murders they had an alibi: they were seen in a cinema and watched The Lion King there. They could also tell the cops how the movie ended and they said it was a boring movie.

Now through this book I've learned that they had actually already seen that movie before so it meant nothing they could tell the cops how it ended and it wasn't evidence that they watched the movie until the end this time. There were no people who said they saw Burns and Atif at the end of the movie, still in the cinema. The cinema was only 5 minutes away from Rafay's home. Most notably he told of some details in his confession that only the killer would have an answer to. 

I'm getting carried away a little. But it was a very revealing book. Fun to read and I recommend it to anyone who has watched episodes 1 and 2 of The Confession Tapes.

[uitar9]

Finally broke down: ordered LSW...just waiting for delivery.

Started the recluse series a while back, think I'm on book 16

[Bonvivant]

Just finished The Martian. Now time to see the movie I suppose. Thinking about buying the original 6 Dune books for myself for Christmas. Anyone have an opinion on either?

I thought the Martian was great, and the ending was properly abrupt. Love the maths and engineering that really showed in the book. I know the movie will probably cover it with one montage, which is a shame but understandable. 

[saevel25]

7 minutes ago, Bonvivant said:

Thinking about buying the original 6 Dune books for myself for Christmas. Anyone have an opinion on either?

I haven't read any of them past the first one. I love the first Dune novel. So good. 

[Bonvivant]

6 minutes ago, saevel25 said:

I haven't read any of them past the first one. I love the first Dune novel. So good. 

I listen to a podcast (last podcast on the left) where they talk about true crime mostly (some supernatural stuff, some conspiracy stuff) and one of the hosts is reading right now and is enthralled. I'd hate to buy just the first one, realize I want to read all 6 and then have to go buy a set. 70 bucks is a bit of a gamble for the whole set to start out, but I think I am going to take take it. 

[snapfade]

I just finished "A Life Well Played" by Arnold Palmer, and now re-reading "A Good Walk Spoiled" by John Feinstein.

[Buckeyebowman]

This computer screen.

[longdrive23]

The Putting Bible. Dave Pelz