No problem. I'm getting to the part that really details some of the stuff that can kill you in the Amazon and it's absolutely nuts.
The back of GlenRice's hairgel bottles, whilst sitting on the crapper and whistling the theme song to "The Man Who Would Be King"...
Based on this review here, I started reading the book. I'm about half way through and love it. I'm obsessed with it, and doing my own research as much as I can on Fawcett and the Amazon. It's really cool, and I can't thank you enough for letting me know about this book.
Glad you liked it. Might want to check out Devil and Sherlock Holmes, also by Grann, which led me to that book. It's a collection of short nonfiction stories. Not as good as Z imo, but there are some very interesting stories, including the title story (one of the world's foremost Sherlock Holmes/Sir Arthur Conan Doyle experts is found dead in his study as he is on the verge of a huge historical find, murdered as though straight out of a Holmes story). I'm about more than halfway through Z. I found the stuff where it details why exactly Fawcett started to believe it possible for the Amazon to have hidden more than just the tribes very interesting.
Elmer Gantry (1927) - Sinclair Lewis After reading the much praised Babbitt, I wanted to read S.L.'s other works. Halfway through this book. Wonderful satire about American society, power, and religion. I'm shocked (and depressed) at how relevant most of the book's points are even today.
I read Z earlier this year. Great true adventure book. Just finished The Trial by Franz Kafka last night, and tonight will undertake one of life's great pleasures - standing in front of my "unread" bookshelf trying to choose my next book. The options include:- Another Man's War, Sam Childers The Good Soldiers, David Finkel The Powerof the Dog, Don Winslow Lustrum, Robert Harris Horn of Africa - Philip Caputo The Kingdom - Robert Lacey The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay - Michael Chabon I am leaning strongly towards Another Man's War, as the movie (Machine Gun Preacher) is due out shortly, and I want to make sure I read the book before people start giving me the hollywood version.
Can someone who has read David Weber compare him to current Fantasy/Sci-Fi Authors? I heard a blurb about him on a podcast today.
In the past 2 months, I've read the below: The Corrections - Jonathan Franzen The Crying of Lot 49 - Thomas Pynchon The Killer Angels - Michael Shaara Interpreter of Maladies - Jhumpa Lahiri The Red Garden - Alice Hoffman Four Spirits - Sena Jeter Naslund Incendiary - Chris Cleave I'm currently reading Little Bee by Chris Cleave. All of the above are fiction and I really enjoyed all of them.
Power of the Dog will give you an interesting view of the war on drugs and massive cluster**** of fail it really is.
On a lark I picked up the first book of the Thrawn trilogy since I had seen people on here writing good things about it. I found the first book unbearingly bad and had to force myself to finish it, just because, and now will be staying far, far away from that crap. It pushed me to want to read some hard core nonfiction or high literature in an attempt to cleanse myself. I instead chose to first read Kay's Sarantium duo since I already own, then will move to two others already in my collection - Juliet Barker's account of Agincourt, and then Maybe Morgan Llywelyn's Lion of Ireland about Brian Boru. After that I will decide if I will stay with easy reading for a time or go hard-core cleanser.
He's pretty good, but has gotten complacent. He has a tendency to start a series (like the "Honor" one) strong, and then dial it in after a while, going for formula, rather than keeping it original and real. On Basilisk Station is a very good read, the first in the "Honor" series. Check that out, and you can make you own judgement about the guy. He's not an A List talent, in my opinion. Want to read a really excellent SF novel, the first of a trilogy? Get Walter Jon Williams' The Praxis and go up a level. A fantastic work and a marvelous trilogy. Highly original.
Thanks for the feedback, Repped. I'll check out WJW, too. As for the original topic- since I don't have time for a book lately, I've been reading short Sci-Fi stories from www.clarkesworldmagazine.com. Good stuff. I haven't read any pure Sci-Fi in about five years (since The Diamond Age), and it's got me on a small Sci-Fi kick.
My favorite thread!!!! Some fantastic recommendation guys!!!! I'm currently reading: Batman: Year One
In the past year I've read: Religion/Philosophy/Psychology The Moral Landscape - Sam Harris Lying - Sam Harris The Rational Optimist - Matt Ridley The Greatest Show on Earth - Richard Dawkins The Magic of Reality - Richard Dawkins The God Delusion - Richard Dawkins The Invisible Gorilla - Christopher Chabris & Daniel Simons There is No God - Anthony Flew Reasonable Faith - William Lane Craig The Reason for God - Timothy Keller The Case for a Creator - Lee Strobel Can Man Live Without God - Ravi Zacharias Love Wins - Rob Bell Misquoting Jesus - Bart Ehrman Fiction/Non-Fiction Life of Pi - Yann Martel Where Men Win Glory - Jon Krakauer Three Cups of Tea - Greg Mortenson Stones Into Schools - Greg Mortenson Three Cups of Deceit - Jon Krakauer Business/Entrepreneur Good to Great - Jim Collins Delivering Happiness - Tony Hsieh The Thank You Economy - Gary Vaynerchuk The Power of TED (*The Empowerment Dynamic) - David Emerald Health The China Study - T. Colin Campbell Feel free to ask me about any of them... (I'm just getting started in this thread, I'll try to post one-by-one reviews in the future). Oh... and based on this thread I've started "Ready Player One". Excellent so far, I'm totally immersed in the story.
Walked through Barnes and Noble the other day, threw up a little in my mouth when I saw the "Teen Paranormal Romance" section. Really? An entire section?
