What books are you reading

Elmer Fudd · October 08, 2025, 06:46 AM

My AI says your wife needs some MEAT.

YoDoug · October 08, 2025, 07:45 AM

Quote from: Elmer Fudd on October 08, 2025, 06:46 AMMy AI says your wife needs some MEAT.

Actually along with the other genetic issues that she has, like EDS, she also has genetic hyperlipidemia. She can only tolerate a little bit of cholesterol and high saturated fat foods. After a couple of days of eating animal foods she will start to develop cholesterol deposits (xanthelasma) around her eyes and her blood lipids will shoot up. She really got dealt a shitty hand when it comes to genetics.

Elmer Fudd · October 08, 2025, 09:53 AM

Uh never mind. I was just being a smart ass.

jstell · November 14, 2025, 04:50 PM

To re-rail this thread, here's one I read a couple years ago. Paradise Alley by Kevin Baker.
It covers the four-day draft riots in New York, July 13-16, 1863, as well as flashbacks to 1840s Ireland and the famine that drove so many to venture across the Atlantic. I read it pretty quick for it being almost 700 pages. Maybe not in just four days, but I remember getting to the third section late enough Saturday night on a hot summer weekend that it was early Sunday morning, and the heading being "July 16" and thinking to myself - That's today! Better finish it, 160 years after it occurred.

Newbeeee™ · November 14, 2025, 08:40 PM

Quote from: jstell on November 14, 2025, 04:50 PMTo re-rail this thread, here's one I read a couple years ago. Paradise Alley by Kevin Baker.
It covers the four-day draft riots in New York, July 13-16, 1863, as well as flashbacks to 1840s Ireland and the famine that drove so many to venture across the Atlantic. I read it pretty quick for it being almost 700 pages. Maybe not in just four days, but I remember getting to the third section late enough Saturday night on a hot summer weekend that it was early Sunday morning, and the heading being "July 16" and thinking to myself - That's today! Better finish it, 160 years after it occurred.

At least Chatgpt (finally) answers exactly as my Irish friends say....

Conclusion:

While the potato blight itself was a natural event, the famine was not a natural disaster in the true sense of the word. It was man-made in the sense that the policies, economic systems, and social structures put in place by the British government—along with the attitudes towards the Irish people—made the effects of the blight catastrophic. The British government's failure to act decisively to protect its population, combined with its exploitative colonial policies, turned what could have been a localized crop failure into one of the most devastating famines in human history.

So, while the potato blight set the stage, it was the human response (or lack of it) that made the famine so devastating. The blame for the scale of the suffering can largely be placed on those who had the power to prevent it, but chose not to.

jstell · January 05, 2026, 04:02 PM

Had the time to get into a couple over the time I had off during the holidays.

Another Kevin Baker title. This one less epic and also less tragic (than "Paradise Alley"). "Strivers Row." Follows a young Malcolm Little (not yet Malcolm X) thru his first escapades in Harlem as a wide-eyed transplant coming in from working the rails to escape poverty in Lansing. Intertwined with fictional characters consistent with the period (1943), and exploring the interaction of race and exclusion during the war years. I didn't know this was the third in a trilogy. I'll have to track down the first one.

Also "The Last Days of Night" - Graham Moore. Another historical fiction, following a young lawyer working for Westinghouse (the man) as his company's existence is threatened by (light bulb) patent lawsuit(s) from Thomas Edison (backed by J. P. Morgan) and the intertwine of the wildly quixotic Nikola Tesla, as the inventors and captains of industry battle it out over AC vs. DC power sources' supremacy. Haven't finished it yet, but it's been quite interesting so far.

Smit · January 06, 2026, 06:32 AM

I'm on the last of the "Expanse" novels. 9 books in all.

After I'm done with that I think I'll move to the novelettes that fill in between the books. There is a compilation of the 9 novelettes called "Memory's legion."

After finishing that I'll move back to the "Game of Thrones" series.

After that I'm thinking the "Charlie Wilson's war" book. I thought the movie was fantastic so the book should be even better.

jstell · February 02, 2026, 01:58 PM

Quote from: Smit on January 06, 2026, 06:32 AMAfter that I'm thinking the "Charlie Wilson's war" book. I thought the movie was fantastic so the book should be even better.

I hope you enjoy it. An intimidating pile of pages, but it is a riveting journey.

Finished "Last Days of Night" and it was a good tale. Maybe the last couple chapters were a little too tidy. But the last third or so really is a tangled intrigue before a solution presents itself and unwinds the tension of the first half.

I think next will be "Rivethead" (Ben Hamper). Should be interesting, and hopefully as humorous in it's telling as the excerpts lead me to believe.

mowens · February 02, 2026, 02:15 PM

I just finished the latest Harry Dresden novel. If you're a fan of the whole "winter knight" and vampire stuff it's good. I kind of miss the ones where just has a cheap office and a listing in the Yellow Pages under wizard.

Brad St · February 03, 2026, 04:45 AM

Mowens, I've done the Harry Dresden audio books up through to "battle ground". There is another one coming out here I believe in march that I have on my waiting list to listen to also.

Easy listening while working, really make the days go by or my drives to and from work =)

mowens · February 03, 2026, 05:50 AM

The one I just finished is called "Twelve Months". It just came out in January in print and on Audible.

jstell · February 17, 2026, 04:57 PM

"Rivethead" (Ben Hamper) is proving to be a quick read. A nice little fluff piece after some of the more dense material of the last while. I didn't realize that his jumping off point was the Flint Voice, a Michael Moore project. The overlap is funny. This is back when Moore was pissing off GM (Roger and Me) and not so much everybody else yet as in the last twenty-five years. Anyway, the book is a cheerful (mostly) romp thru the antics of workin' the line of Truck & Bus in Flint at the end of the 70s and into the 80s. What an odd collective assortment of individuals and the tales that they created, as relayed by Rivethead, which started as a column in the Flint Voice.