Books: Last Book You Read and Rate It

[Thucydides]

Socrates is put on trial for heresy, and corrupting the minds of the youth - a defining moment in the history of Athens. Broke into four parts- the book delves into deeper insights into a life of self responsibility, meditating on everything from suicide , the immortality of the soul, to transmigration. The book, like many philosophy books, teaches the reader to look bravely into the inevitable face of death, and when the moment comes , embrace it.

8/10

 

[Thucydides]

History of the world crammed into 100 pages showing the reader history does tend to repeat itself . These authors penned something like eleven massive books chronicling the history of civilization , and this book is basically a summary of all of them.

Good book , and definitely worth the read .

7/10

 

[Thucydides]

Smart Malaysian guy somehow turns a Malaysian government hedge fund into a vehicle of his own , ripping off wealthy middle eastern princes , and big banks , while hanging out with models and A list actors .

pretty entertaining read , and those who liked “the wolf of Wall Street” will really enjoy this.

I found it tended to get a little old and stale after awhile, a lot of it was gossipy and some chapters were devoted to how much he spent on jewelry .

4.5/10

 

[Thucydides]

A look at the coming revolution of artificial intelligence & how it will disrupt our lives , economically , and politically .

7/10

 

[Pink Mist]

The Man Who Smiled (Wallander #4) by Henning Mankell

After a year long absence to deal with post traumatic stress after killing a suspect, Inspector Kurt Wallander is back to the job after a family of lawyers are mysteriously killed. In their investigation Kurt and his team of police slowly unravel a thread which leads to a powerful Swedish business tycoon who may be behind the killings. After the last two novels in the series involving plots of international intrigue, it is nice for the series to go back to being more of a police procedural, although the ending for this one still is something out of an action movie. It is nice to have a female character introduced to the all male crew of detectives, although at times her portrayal is kind of one note. Best of the series so far.

 

[Gordon Lightfoot]

The Bluest Eye - Toni Morrison. 8/10

 

[ItsFineImFine]

History of the world crammed into 100 pages showing the reader history does tend to repeat itself . These authors penned something like eleven massive books chronicling the history of civilization , and this book is basically a summary of all of them.

Good book , and definitely worth the read .

7/10

Really like that concept and I've been intrigued by history books. I've got two I own but they're really thick and I've only read a portion. Would love more focused general history books which are like this but still flying in at under 300 pages.

 

[Spring in Fialta]

Outer Dark by Cormac McCarthy (1968) - An early one in his career, written in Ibiza while he was in his early to mid thirties. I think I've spoken enough about McCarthy on this board so I'll just quote the great Aaron Rodgers: 'My down year is most quarterbacks' career year'.'

Oh, and to keep geeking football for another moment, here's Brady gushing about Rodgers: 'He throws the best incompletions that I've ever seen.'

There you go. Perfectly stated.

 

[Osprey]

Outer Dark by Cormac McCarthy (1968) - An early one in his career, written in Ibiza while he was in his early to mid thirties. I think I've spoken enough about McCarthy on this board so I'll just quote the great Aaron Rodgers: 'My down year is most quarterbacks' career year'.'

Oh, and to keep geeking football for another moment, here's Brady gushing about Rodgers: 'He throws the best incompletions that I've ever seen.'

There you go. Perfectly stated.

That, indeed, is a perfect quote to describe Cormac McCarthy... because every sentence of his is incomplete.

Sorry! I couldn't resist.

 

[Spring in Fialta]

That, indeed, is a perfect quote to describe Cormac McCarthy... because every sentence of his is incomplete.

Sorry! I couldn't resist.

 

[Nizdizzle]

Another home-run for Sanderson. While his prose isn't as good as someone like Rothfuss, his worldbuilding and story-planning seems second-to-none. The last quarter of each of his books are an absolute rush, and this one is no different. I went in to work tired all this week because I stayed of late trying to reach as much as I could.

Being the writing machine that he is, we probably see the next book (and final of the first 5-book arc) in about 3 years. I was never a big reader growing up, but after reading A Way of Kings it really plunged me headfirst into fantasy writing.

 

[Pink Mist]

The Dead Hand: The Untold Story of the Cold War Arms Race and its Dangerous Legacy by David E. Hoffman

Historical account of the struggle during the later half of the 20th century to eliminate American and Soviet arsenals of nuclear weapons and to uncover the USSR’s biological weapon program. Excellent in-depth research throughout, especially on the Soviet biological weapon program, however a little scattered at times struggling to cohesively thread all the events during this period of the Cold War. Terrifying to think what would happen if one of these biological weapons were ever used, although I suppose we are kind of currently living that experience during this pandemic.

 

[ItsFineImFine]

Where does this woman get these crazy twists from, absolutely fantastic. Not her best work but a good quick and succinct read.

 

[Pink Mist]

Sidetracked (Wallander #5) by Henning Mankell

In rural Sweden, the world’s busiest provincial detective returns as a serial killer is on the loose who scalps and kills his victims with an axe. For a while when reading this I thought it was a copy of plot of a movie I had seen, but then I remembered that the plot from the first episode of the BBC Wallander series, the only episode that I’ve seen from a few years ago before starting the series of novels. Stupid me. Anyway, very engaging and entertaining plot, like all novels in the series you need to suspend your disbelief a bit, but probably the best of the series so far. Although I’m not used to the warm summer setting in this book in place of the usual cold dreary Swedish winter.

 

[Pink Mist]

The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead

Elwood Curtis is a black teenager living in the Deep South during the civil rights era of America. A driven and strong willed boy, he is accepted to begin college level classes early despite his age. However, the summer before he is set to begin, he gets arrested by the police for a crime he did not commit and is sent to a juvenile “reform school” for troubled youth called the Nickel Academy. At the school he befriends a delinquent named Turner and together they scheme to survive their time at the school which is characterized by beatings, cruel punishment, indentured servitude, and murders by their guards and caretakers. Based on an actual school which was only closed in 2011 after operating for 111 years and where hidden gravesites were discovered on its property shortly afterward, this novel captured Whitehead’s second Pulitzer Prize (the other being for The Underground Railroad), making him one of only 4 repeat winners of the prize. And its success is well deserved as The Nickel Boys is a fantastic novel of the cruelty of the Jim Crow era and its continued legacy today in America told through rich language and a captivating story. Highly recommended.

 

[Soldier13Fox]

Another home-run for Sanderson. While his prose isn't as good as someone like Rothfuss, his worldbuilding and story-planning seems second-to-none. The last quarter of each of his books are an absolute rush, and this one is no different. I went in to work tired all this week because I stayed of late trying to reach as much as I could.

Being the writing machine that he is, we probably see the next book (and final of the first 5-book arc) in about 3 years. I was never a big reader growing up, but after reading A Way of Kings it really plunged me headfirst into fantasy writing.

I'm going to be starting The Stormlight Archive soon, looking forward to it. If you are just getting into "epic" fantasy, like Sanderson, I highly recommend The Malazan Book of the Fallen. Excellent stuff.

 

[Nizdizzle]

I'm going to be starting The Stormlight Archive soon, looking forward to it. If you are just getting into "epic" fantasy, like Sanderson, I highly recommend The Malazan Book of the Fallen. Excellent stuff.

I read Malazan a few years ago. Really tough to get into, but some of the most satisfying fantasy I've ever read.

 

[robertmac43]

I'm going to be starting The Stormlight Archive soon, looking forward to it. If you are just getting into "epic" fantasy, like Sanderson, I highly recommend The Malazan Book of the Fallen. Excellent stuff.

Building off this, I highly recommend reading the rest of the Cosmere if you have not already @Nizdizzle. Sanderson is a hit machine!

 

[Thucydides]

This book, and his other "On the good life" are proof that words, and books are extremely powerful, and can in fact change ones mind, and ones life.

Cicero is my favorite thinker, though he gets overlooked by other giants - Plato, Seneca, but man, Cicero really hits home here, especially the second part of this book "On duties". I've tried to find it online but no luck.

Cicero takes a bit from other major schools of thought - stoicism for example, and really expands on it and makes it his own. There's something to chew on every single page here, that makes the reader think, and grow as a person. His words have the power to change you because the advice he's giving you is timeless. A genius, for sure. There's a reason we are still reading his words thousands of years later, and if we were to come back in another few thousand years people would still be finding him, reading his work, and being inspired.

In these trying times we need Cicero more than ever.

 

[Nizdizzle]

Building off this, I highly recommend reading the rest of the Cosmere if you have not already @Nizdizzle. Sanderson is a hit machine!

Man, I read a Way of Kings a number of years ago and it kinda rekindled my love of reading. I read the entire Cosmere over the next year and now I wait patiently for Sanderson to bring out a new book every year. The scope and planning that has gone into the Cosmere books is insane.

 

[robertmac43]

Man, I read a Way of Kings a number of years ago and it kinda rekindled my love of reading. I read the entire Cosmere over the next year and now I wait patiently for Sanderson to bring out a new book every year. The scope and planning that has gone into the Cosmere books is insane.

It's hard to comprehend that one person built this world. It's crazy!

 

[RandV]

Man, I read a Way of Kings a number of years ago and it kinda rekindled my love of reading. I read the entire Cosmere over the next year and now I wait patiently for Sanderson to bring out a new book every year. The scope and planning that has gone into the Cosmere books is insane.

Sanderson is a machine. This is his general "Cosmere" outline, not including other projects, from his 2019 'State of the Sanderson' blog:

For what it’s worth, here is what I have as the current Cosmere sequence, not counting potential YA books or the occasional novella. Finished books are in bold. This isn’t an exact chronology of when I’ll write them either.

• Elantris 1
• Elantris 2
• Elantris 3
• Mistborn Era 1: Book One
• Mistborn Era 1: Book Two
• Mistborn Era 1: Book Three
• Stormlight One
• Stormlight Two
• Stormlight Three
• Stormlight Four
• Stormlight Five
• Mistborn Era 2: Book One
• Mistborn Era 2: Book Two
• Mistborn Era 2: Book Three
• Mistborn Era 2: Book Four
• Warbreaker 1
• Warbreaker 2
• Mistborn Era 3: Book One
• Mistborn Era 3: Book Two
• Mistborn Era 3: Book Three
• Stormlight Six
• Stormlight Seven
• Stormlight Eight
• Stormlight Nine
• Stormlight Ten
• Dragonsteel Book One
• Dragonsteel Book Two
• Dragonsteel Book Three
• Untitled Threnody Novel
• Untitled Aether Book One
• Untitled Aether Book Two
• Untitled Aether Book Three
• Mistborn Era 4: Book One
• Mistborn Era 4: Book Two
• Mistborn Era 4: Book Three

I finished a Rhythm of War a few weeks ago. A week prior to the book arriving though I decided to re-read book 3, but being a little lost when I opened it went back and started with book 2 so that kept me occupied for a good while. I usually don't need to re-read/re-watch stuff even something as big as The Stormlight Archive books, but I guess I'm getting older. I re-read the first book The Way of Kings when the second Words of Radiance came out, so that's settled well in my head, but when #3 Oathbringer came out I jumped straight into that without re-reading #2. So I decided to enjoy #4 best I had to re-read #2 and #3, and I'd say it was worth it.

 

[Spring in Fialta]

The Third Policeman by Flann O'Brien (written in 39-40, published in 1967) - Certainly a unique voice. The premise is very funny and it has its moments where its humor is utterly brilliant. But I was bored by a decent number of stretches here and when the book veers into nonsense literature, I found myself thinking whether the decision was as rewarding as thought. It was a bit disappointing because I found the first chapter great and was excited when the book took its initial sharp turn but I think I had set my expectations too high. Not too sure what to make of it and it's a novel that will deserve a re-read at some point in the future. Some of the scenes are too amusing not to. The descriptions of fake loony philosopher De Selby are great, as are the footnotes detailing the findings and hypothesis of various (often rivaling) scholars who have a keen interest in his life and work. Never have bicycles been used in such a funny and endearing way. Some passages were so good I read them two or three times. Still, like I said, a number of stretches where I was outright bored, despite how fantastical the story is. Could be one of those things where on a re-read I'll end up slapping myself on the forehead by how much I like it. But that didn't happen on a first read, despite some perfect moments. I think some of it went over my head a little bit. But O'Brien did have some smart things to say too.

 

[Thucydides]

Ever wondered what happened to your soul if eaten by cannibals ? The answer is in this book. There are a lot of answers to most questions you can think of asking .

The book is basically built around the idea that there are two world’s that exist on earth - the earthly city , where the sinning happens, and all the “evil” that comes with it ,and the City of God, where true happiness lies , though most of us don’t get here, or even know such a place exists .

Augustine takes his sweet time in showing the reader that such a place does exist and this is how you get here, and more importantly- this is why you should get here.

Augustine was a deep, serious man, and this is his magnum opus .

 

[KapG]

The reckoning by John Grisham.

one of the worst books I’ve read in a long time. There was some passable spots, mainly a flash back chunk of the book going back to war in pacific...Bataan death March and stuff. Mostly though this book was just boring and strings you along for 400 pages before finally letting you in on the big “secret” the last 20 pages. What a let down that secret was too. I feel Grisham mailed it in hard with this one just so he could cash a cheque using his name.


.5/5 for this garbage.