I'm way behind on books this year.

I just finished The Last Orphan (Orphan X #8) by Gregg Hurwitz. 5/5. I just love this series. This is not the most action-packed or even the most interesting story, but I appreciate all the little philosophical things and heart-string pulls that are included in the novels.

Gregg will often include quotes from nonfiction in his books, and I liked this gem:

"Your pain is the breaking of the shell that encloses your understanding."

- Kahlil Gibran

FUARK.

I'm 25% of the way in and it's a wild read. I had obvious anxiety as a child, as an adult it has become almost purely psycho****tic; you don't even know it's anxiety because your body creates physical symptoms to distract you from it. I'm combining this read with Dr. Sarno's "The Divided Mind".... Another cool book.

I am halfways through the book called What everybody is saying, really cool book that teaches you about body language and gives you insight on what certain behaviors might mean when confronting or dealing with people

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Moved away from self help books. Been reading more fiction and starting to get into autobiographies. Currently reading 9 perfect strangers and Legacy by James Kerr

List looking pretty beefy. Never in a million years would i have thought id read 11 books by May


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I've read that^

really good one.

Finished some more:
Thus spoke zarathustra - read this a long time ago already, really enjoyed it 5/5
Ghost on the throne - This is by far the best book on the wars of the diadochi i've read now, and i can't recommend it and it's style enough. It reads like a narrative, but it has an absurdly high attention to detail. The only shame is that it really only covers the first part of the war of the diadochi, so dividing the spoils is a good companion piece. 5/5
Demetrius Sacker of cities - same author as ghost on the throne (james romm, an excellent historian), and this was also very good, and gave a bit more context to Demetrius I and his quite incredible siege technology. 4/5
Greatest minds and ideas of all time (will durant) - didn't really like this at all and found it a bit tacky. Clearly im not a will durant fan. 2.5/5

Currently reading:
Plutarch hellenistic lives - enjoying this as it covers many biographics of various players in the diadochi period.
Myke cole - legion vs phalanx - about half way through, and honestly isn't as good as i thought. It seems it's probably meant to be marketed at a popular audience (myke cole isn't a historian), and it's a bit scant on detail i expected to see in a supposedly comprehensive book about how legions fought the phalanx, but it still has some interesting parts.

I've slacked a little due to social obligatons lately, but overall i'm pretty happy with my progress this year.
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Updated list

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Finished up 11-22-63 by Stephen King. The whole Oswald in New Orleans thing reminded me of Dr. Mary's Monkey, which I had gotten my father years ago. So I decided to read that. Fantastic investigative journalism type book about the CIA, Kennedy Assassination, Oswald, virology, the polio vaccine, linear particle accelerators, Cuban missile crisis and communism, etc. It's crazy how all these things tie together, and the author does a great job of presenting the information (all readily available for anyone to do their own research on it) and then clearly stating when he's offering his opinion on certain things.

Outside of A Terrible Mistake about the "suicide" of biochemist Frank Olson, does anyone have any other good book recommendations about Fort Detrick, CIA experiments, MK-Ultra, etc. that are good reads with good information, as opposed to just crackpot theories with zero substance to back it up?

Safe to say that 2023 is the first year of a new generation of books & writing.

Chat GDP is going to ruin this art. Some miscer posted a poem written by the bot and it was hilarious and perfect.

I don't see how authors won't be using this garbage to constant re-phrase stuff, and make it work better.... But it isn't REAL original writing from the mind of a human.

Kind of sad/weird tbh.

15. Anspach, Cole, & Robillard – Underspire 3/5
16. Anspach & Cole – Sgt Thor: Little Sister 4/5
17. Patrick Freivald – Jade Sky 4/5
18. Patrick Freivald – Black Tide 4/5
19. Patrick Freivald – Jade Gods 4/5
20. Patrick Freivald – Jade Scars 3.5/5

new millennium boyz by alex kazemi for fans of american psycho

I'm all caught up on the In Death series. Next book is coming out in Sept

1. The Choice (book 3 Dragon Heart Legacy) by Nora Roberts
2. Devoted in Death (#41 In Death series) by JD Robb.
3. Wonderment in Death (41.5 In Death series) by JD Robb
4. Brotherhood in Death (42 In Death ) by JD Robb
5. Apprentice in Death(book 43) by JD Robb
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Managed a few more:
Legion vs phallanx, 3/5 in the end. Had some fun parts and some interesting facts about the battle of magnesia and Cynoscephalae, but i don't really think it sets out what it's goal is meant to be, to explain the dynamics of the legion vs phallanx. But it wasn't written by a career historian, and he said his target was a 'popular audience' so i guess it makes sense

Hellenistic Lives - Plutarch 4.5/5 - Probably my favourite 'plutarch lives' yet, i especially enjoyed Pyrrhus and Philopoemen's lives. Every single one was an interesting life though.

Ripples in spacetime - Govert Schilling - 4/5 - This was a surprisingly good account of the challenges faced by LIGO and the LISA projects, and a general survey of the future involving gravitational waves

Next:
Aristophanes - The Birds, Knights, Assembleywomen, Peace, Wealth
Gravitys century - Ron Cowen

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I haven't posted much as I've been doing primarily re-reads for the last two years (all Harry Bosch, Mitch Rapp with just a couple more to go, 11/22/63, The Force, Nickel Boys, etc.), but I was given a copy of Michael Connely's Chasing The Dime. It's one of his few stand-alone books and it reads similar to a Michael Crighton book (technical but a little less so). It's great!!! A 35 year old scientist on the brink of a big discovery gets a new phone number, and within minutes of the new number becoming "live," he starts getting calls for an escort named Lilly. Due to the loss of his older sister to the streets many years ago, he feels compelled to search for Lilly. This search lands him in a lot of hot water with both the criminal element and then later with the cops who twist all of his altruistic actions into an elaborate cover-up for what they think is Lilly's murder at his hands.

Exciting to the very end: 10/10

Now I'm back to another re-read: Hemingway's For Whom The Bell Tolls. If you've not read this, it's a great story about an American who has volunteered to help Spain's Republicans defeat the Nationalists, and he's tasked with demolishing a bridge immediately after an attack of less-than-certain timing begins.

Good to see many of you still reading, shame this thread isn't more active.

Since i last posted:
Finished:
Aristophanes - The Birds, Knights, Assembleywomen, Peace, Wealth - Finished this, honestly Aristophanes plays have aged better than any others ive read (including Euripides, Sophocles, Aeschylus etc). He is a funny lad, and his satire cuts right to the core of Peloponnesian war Athenian politics, truly a great read if you want to understand the culture of the time more. No wonder he's often seen as the father of comedy - 4.5/5.

Ron Cowen - Gravitys Century - this was a bit of a surprise, i wasn't expecting much and it was just something i'd grabbed to pass time. Delves into many areas of physics in a decent level of detail, starting with Gallielo and putting Einsteins theories into proper historical context, and it also goes into a lot of detail regarding gravitational wave detection (nice compliment piece to the govert schilling book i read). Overall good, but short - 3.5/5

Jeff Champion - Antigonus the one eyed - Greatest of the successors - I've read so many books on the diadochi now, but this was particularly interesting and was written from a sympathetic perspective from antigonuses point of view. Truly a great man that could've potentially achieved even more if his son wasn't tricked into pursuing Antiochuses troops at the battle of ipsus, causing the wing to be cut off from the phallanx where Antigonus died. His last words 'demetrius will save us' are somewhat harrowing, he had faith in his son till the end. 4/5

Daniel W Graham - Ancient Philosophy the fundamentals - Pretty good recap on material i've read... there wasn't really anything new here for me but it was still an entertaining journey, starting from the pre-socratics and finishing with St Augustines philosophy. The section on neoplatonism was particularly good - 3.5/5

Currently reading:
James Romm - The Sacred Band: Three Hundred Theban Lovers Fighting to Save Greek Freedom - Currently getting through this and it's really good so far, but i'm not surprised, i've yet to read a James Romm book that i didn't enjoy. James Romm has an amazing way of turning complex, patchy historical evidence into a detailed, coherant and gripping narrative. There's not many facts here i didn't know so far from reading Hellenica and plutarch, but the way it's presented is pretty cool. The first chapter which i've finished was primarily about the Spartans under phoebidas taking Thebes cadmea, and the exiles led by Pelopidas and their expulsion of the garrison.

Aristophanes - The Wasps, The Poet and the Women & The Frogs
I've read the Wasps and the poet & the women, and have the Frogs left to read. Political satire at its finest. The Poet and the women was particularly funny, and it's amusing to find that even the ancient athenians found a man dressed up as a woman, hiding his cock and balls as hilarious as we do.

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Finished American Made: Who Killed Barry Seal. I skimmed a bit towards the end, this was an interesting but mostly just ok read. Definitely a lot going on at that time in regards to the US govt cooperating with cartels, etc in S America but so much of the book was written as conversation rather than just giving known facts. Then the author started quoting movies like JFK as if that was somehow evidence of the events he was writing about.I agree



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Finally got to this one. Fairly good read, although I found the discussion on consciousness a bit underwhelming and not appreciative of the profoundness of the problem, and still not really nailing down what makes human minds really unique.


I woulda liked to see some more discussion on complexity theory and self-organization and how intelligence emerges from physical stuff, but the book is kinda old now coming out in 2000.


MIT series on these subjects don't disappoint.

Haven't updated in awhile.

Finished 3 since my last updated, a fantasy trilogy called The Last War trilogy by Mike Shackle, We Are the Dead, A Fool's Hope & Until the Last.

Great story telling, you quickly get engrossed in the plot. The characters took a little bit longer to grow on me than in Abercrombie's books, but it didn't take long to get invested in them.
The whole trilogy was very dark, lots of hopeless moments for the heroes. Some parts, especially in the final book are straight depressing seeing their hopes smashed for the 100th time.
Fun stuff, and I'd love for him to expand on the world a little bit more, even one prequel and one aftermath book would be awesome.

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#35 done, Mythos by Stephen Fry

Fun, light hearted re-telling of the classic tales of Greek Mythology. I always ****d these stories growing up. He did a great job trying to put these "chronologically" starting with creation, and then show how many of the stories intertwined with the others.
I'm definitely going to check out the other two books, Heroes and Troy later this year

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#36: The Wind Through the Keyhole by Stephen King.

I really enjoyed this one. Short book that takes place within the Dark Tower series: it ends up being a story within a story within a story.
The whole dystopian / western vibe in the Dark Tower was so damn good and it was fun to revisit the world.

I've been thinking about re-reading the Dark Tower books, but despite how awesome the journey was, the ending was just unsatisfying. A re-read could still be fun, probably pick up on a lot more things the second time around, but I always struggle getting myself to read something again when there's so many new books out there
have any of you cats read the series?

Gonna start a sci fi trilogy next, Red Rising by Pierce Brown. I've heard good things

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That's a spectacular series. You will most likely love it too.

Read:
James Romm - The Sacred band - 4.5/5, James romm is rapidly becoming my favourite historian for Greek history. I've read 3 books of his so far, and they have all been especially good (demetrius the besieger, ghost on the throne, the sacred band)
It doesn't really focus on the sacred band which is the only real criticism i've seen of this book, but it's not a problem for me. It covers the sacred band as much as we can with the sources available, but most of the book focuses on the period from the Theban solstice plot, all the way to the battle of Chaeroneah, with special focus on Epaminondas, Pelopidas, Alexander of Pherae, and Agesilaus and Phillip of Macedon towards the end. Great book.

Aristophanes - The Wasps, The poet & the woman, the frogs - 4/5 - These were some good satirical plays, i especially enjoyed the poet and the women, comedy truly is timeless. It entails Euripides in comic fashion sending his servant into a womans-only festival to convince them not to vote against Euripides for apparantly lowering the status of women in his play. His servant dresses as a woman but is exposed by an effeminate homosexual man named Cleisthenes who strips him off, and he tries to hide his cock between his legs lol.

Stephen Jay Gould - Questioning the Millenium - 4/5 - This book was a real surprise frankly. I've long been a fan of Stephen jay goulds academic work, but this has nothing to do with it and i wasn't sure what to expect. It outlined the meaning of the term 'millenium', how it moved from its original meaning to our modern meaning, and why the human mind seems to attach so much importance to 1000 year time periods that have no analogue in natural phenomena (like the day, or year do). It ended up being a quite intriguing read, and he ended by talking about the difficulties of trying to make a calender that reconciles a bunch of irreconcilable phenomena (i.e days, years, lunar months).

NEXT:
Richard Dawkins - flights of fancy - Dawkins talking about the evolution of flight.
David Hume - Dialogues & The natural history of religion - i'm a big hume fan in general, so this will be interesting. I've already started reading some of it, and he's already made some profound points that has my brain spinning.

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1. The Choice (book 3 Dragon Heart Legacy) by Nora Roberts
2. Devoted in Death (#41 In Death series) by JD Robb.
3. Wonderment in Death (41.5 In Death series) by JD Robb
4. Brotherhood in Death (42 In Death ) by JD Robb
5. Apprentice in Death(book 43) by JD Robb
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Just wrapped up The Making of the Atomic Bomb by Richard Rhodes: 5/5 - One of my favorite books now. It's the authority on all things theoretical and nuclear physics from the late 1800's through Hiroshima/Nagasaki. Probably 50% science, 40% history, and 10% poly sci. I do audiobooks and this one clocked in at 37 hours. Even still, I rarely took breaks and would listen for 3-4 hours on end on long drives without a break (unlike most other books). Got me refreshed on the science and history for the movie Oppenheimer coming out on July 21st.

Just started The Thrill of the Chase, which is about Forrest Fenn's treasure if anyone is familiar with it. Basically this antiquities dealer hid a small copper chest containing millions of dollars worth of artifacts, gold, and jewelry somewhere in the Rocky Mountains. He wrote a semi-biographical book and included a poem which contains 9 clues as to where/how to find the chest. It's since been found, but I don't believe the actual solve was ever published. This book is written by one of the treasure hunters and his experience of the hunt. It's got really good reviews, but since finishing the last book, this one I'm having a tough time really jumping into. I'm probably going to put it aside for now and approach it later.

I just downloaded Long Shadows by David Baldacci (who is one of my favorite writers), which is part of the Memory Man series. I'm sure I'll love this one as well. Next on the list will likely be Jack Carr's new novel Only the Dead.

I finished Nietzsche's Thus Spoke(/Spake) Zarathustra. It was good, but kind of hard to follow a lot of the time. You can still glean a good deal from it if you want.

I started reading The Earth Has A Soul by Meredith Sabini. Subtitle: CG Jung on Nature, Technology, and Modern Life. It's a collection of works by Jung on the topic of.... pretty much what the title indicatesIt's a great book so far, talks about man's primitive nature, how modern man has essentially lost it or outright rejects it, needs to reconnect with nature to reinvigorate the spirit and learn more about themselves and their place in the world. He is a big proponent of the idea that too much science and too much rationality has corrupted a lot of us in modern days. A healthy balance needs to be achieved.

I know this is obvious, but I've been doing more audio books and I just don't absorb it as much. You get a few random "aha!" facts out of it, but you miss a ton of the book. Just ordered 3 paperbacks off thriftbooks so I can get back to ACTUAL READING.

20. Patrick Freivald – Jade Scars 3.5/5
21. James A Moore – SNAFU – Wolves at the Door 4/5
22. Will Wight – Waybound 5/5
23. James A Moore – SNAFU - Survival of the Fittest 4/5

If you like fantasy or magic type books, you should give the Cradle Series by Will Wight a try. They are very good and the series just concluded after 12 books.

I think you have to tailor it to the book. I'd say about 20% of my books are audiobooks, and i get just as much out of them as reading, but i select them well. I don't think classics suit audiobook format, but many of the modern history books for example have worked well (The James romm books i've been reading have mostly been audible and his style suits it very much). For me, the benefit of audible is that its not 'read or audible', because when i listen to books is when im walking my dog, or driving or something, these are times id never be able to read anyway so it's almost like creating time lol.I've found that if you've read a lot of other Nietszche works prior, then Thus spoke zarathustra becomes quite a wonderful summary of his system, obviously in colourful, biblical language (but that's the point). It's honestly one of my favourite books.

Based on your second comment i'd recommend Carl jung - The undiscovered self if you haven't already read it. It's a light work especially by Jung's standard, but it outlines exactly what you've just summarised in modern society.

37 & 38
Red Rising and Golden Son by Pierce Brown (Red Rising trilogy Book 1 & 2)
Knocked out book 1 during the work week then finished book 2 over the weekend. What a ride so far! Loving the series, the characters, the story...
not to mention the pace is just intense. It's not all about the action scenes though, the dynamics with the relationships between the different characters is excellent.

Too bad its back to work today, I'm anxious to dive into Morning Star, especially with how Golden Son ended, but it will have to wait until tonight.


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