Quote from: Falling Down on September 08, 2015, 12:05:28 amCartel: Don WinslowA massive, MASSIVE sequel to Winslow's “The Power of the Dog” which picks up the story of America's "War on Drugs" straight from the ending of the first book. There's enough five star reviews in the papers and online that do better justice than I can here. Both are absolutely brilliant and as with the first one, I could not put this down. I thought The Power of the Dog was amazing, and somehow missed this. Excited now.
Cartel: Don WinslowA massive, MASSIVE sequel to Winslow's “The Power of the Dog” which picks up the story of America's "War on Drugs" straight from the ending of the first book. There's enough five star reviews in the papers and online that do better justice than I can here. Both are absolutely brilliant and as with the first one, I could not put this down.
The Odyssey: Homer (translated by Walter Shewring)Well, I didn't expect it to be so entertaining and relatively easy to read. What a story about us all. I now see why Homer matters. Give it a try, it's fantastic.
Thanks FD, I'll put it on my list. I needed a new book quick and ended up going for DaveC's recommendation of Jonathan Sumption's Cursed Kings. I really want to get back into some fiction, but history's so much easier to read on public transport.I think I might be tied up for a while with this one....reads superbly so far. Cheers Dave.
Recent reads:Shackleton's account of his epic Endurance voyage in South. Cracking real life adventure story, incredible just how tough those guys were and the conditions they endured. Shackleton must have been a hell of an inspiring leader to keep everyone from each others' throats on a ship trapped in an ice sheet for 6 months. One of the bits I liked the most was when Shackleton recounts how they shook hands four times over their voyage when they'd achieved something really significant eg. walked over a mountainous glaciated island to get to a whaling station and thereby save (a) their own lives and (b) the lives of twenty other men they'd left living in a boat/snow cave on a spit of shingle in the Antarctic. Warranted a handshake. Extraordinary.
Recent reads:Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World by Jack Weatherford.
The Rational Optimist. Just great. Touches on many topics but the central theme is how labour specialisation and trade in goods, services and ideas have inexorably raised human living standards throughout history (and why economic pessimism is fashionable but almost always wrong). If any of you soft-lefty types can stomach reading just one book that challenges your confirmation bias, make it this one.
If any of you soft-lefty types can stomach reading just one book that challenges your confirmation bias, make it this one.
Then I read the section on the last 30 years. This felt like an extended Telegraph leader. The one topic I have a slight scholarly knowledge of - health economics - was way off the mark in my view. It made me question the rest of the book.
Big recommendation: English Passengers by Matthew Kneale. Fantastic - C18 set tale of (amongst other things) a smuggler's voyage to Tasmania and the early settlement of the place. Skips from proper funny comedy to man's-inhumanity-to-his-fellow-man without missing a beat.