[fried]

Cartel: Don Winslow

A 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.

Would you recommend reading The Power of the Dog first or do they read as independent books?

[rodma]

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.

i read the lattimore translation earlier this year an enjoyed it. i felt like it was written for the middle aged man to enjoy rather than for everyone, but maybe that's just down to my perspective.

[Falling Down]

Fried - I think I'd read them in series. You don't have to as Cartel stands up in its own right but the two main characters are formed during TPOTG.

Rodma - Maybe the middle aged appreciate it a bit more?  I wouldn't have done at school or college age.

[fried]

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.

[Sasquatch]

Jumped into Power of the Dog based on the recs on here.  Fantastic read.  Had a dream of being tortured by a mexican drug gang one night and kicked my wife.  She was none too happy

[DaveC]

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.

All part of the service, it is a great piece of history writing. Astonishing that Sumption has been producing this series while becoming an outstanding barrister and now a Supreme Court judge!

[Fultonius]

I have just re-read Steve House's Beyond the Mountain. Interesting insight in the mind of a truly committed alpinist in the greater ranges.

[Falling Down]

Yeah. A flippin' great book that in so many ways confirmed that I was never cut out to be a mountaineer.

[dave]

Thats one of my favourite pieces of mountain literature.

[SA Chris]

That and Troll Wall are my favourite climbing reads of the last couple of years.

[Rocksteady]

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.

Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World by Jack Weatherford. Can't remember if this was recommended on this thread or elsewhere. Anyway, good, fast-paced easy reading history book. Wish it had the footnotes in the main text rather than having them all at the end of the book without the specific references. Because of the lack of embedded footnotes it feels sometimes he's overselling the achievements/benefits of the Mongol empire. For example, we're told that although the Mongols were utterly ruthless when resisted, they were fair and less bloodthirsty conquerors to places that submitted - i.e. less crimes with the death penalty, no torture etc etc. Would have been good to see the stats. I guess a lot of it is a kind of revisionist stance to the terrible press Genghis has historically had from the countries and cultures he destroyed/conquered. Really enjoyed it anyway and would like to read a more academic account of the same.

Re-reading Dracula now - first time since a teenager. Gripping.

[bendavison]

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.

In a similar vein, have a look at Fergus Flemming's 'Tales of Endurance'. ~45 short-story length accounts of similar adventures (including shackleton's). It's split into the eras of enquiry, exploration and endeavor. Easy to dip in and out of,  interesting and written with a bit of black humor.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[moose]

Recent reads:
Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World by Jack Weatherford.

Cool - I have been looking for a good book on the Mongols after listening to the Dan Carlin "Hardcore History" podcasts on Genghis & co (a UKB recommendation I think).  If you haven't already come across them, they are a really good listen, link to the first one:

http://www.dancarlin.com/product/hardcore-history-43-wrath-of-the-khans-i/

[Fultonius]

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.

Added to the list. Doubt I'll get to read it for a while as I'm up to the eyeballs in uni reading. Currently on A Rough Ride to the Future by James Lovelock, the man behind the Gaia hypothesis. I feel he published a year or two too early as many of his points have recently been refuted. Interesting take on the worlds future anyway.

[andy popp]

If any of you soft-lefty types can stomach reading just one book that challenges your confirmation bias, make it this one.

Barely worthy of Sloper.

[andy popp]

Try not being gratuitously condescending for a start. If you would really like some of us "soft-lefty types" to read it then don't insult our intelligence but instead tell us why you find Ridley's arguments and evidence so compelling?

[duncan]

Following several recommendations here The English and Their History was my holiday reading last summer and I got round to finishing it recently. I enjoyed most of it as a lively retelling of the national story. Tombs is occasionally over-pleased with himself in his different interpretation - as he presents it - of some of very familiar events. The history of Englishness was an intriguing angle and wished a more had been made of this.

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.

[Rocksteady]

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.

Duncan that's pretty interesting. Agree that author adopts an anti-revisionist history stance and enjoys making his point. I thought the last 30 years was the weakest section of the book too, but mainly because I think it's difficult to put relatively current affairs into any sort of sensible 'historical' perspective.
Would it be too much to give an example of where Tombs was off the mark on health economics? Just would be interesting to see whether the example would extrapolate out to the rest of the book or whether it's an instance of lack of detailed knowledge on this particular topic?

[duncan]

Tombs essentially said the NHS was a basket-case and highly inefficient. A typical view of someone who only has knowledge of a few western health-care systems and is over-reliant on personal experience over any kind of analysis. Healthcare is a messy, inexact process and every healthcare system functions 'inefficiently' compared with building cars.

Independent assessors rate the NHS care quality as never less than middling in absolute terms amongst OECD countries and usually close to the top. The NHS is almost certainly the most efficient (cost-effective) healthcare system in large western industrial countries. Here's what the soft-lefty types at Forbes think.

Tomes just over-extended his reach here and gave too much weight to personal prejudice but you can't but wonder if this happens elsewhere. It's like the final chapter of many a pop-science book when the author discusses the wider implications of his work, goes beyond his expertise, and looks a little foolish (some authors have written entire books which are 'last chapter' material of course, Dawkins on religion for example).

[fried]

I have to agree, the last part of the book was by far the weakest. Probably more current affairs than History for a book of this scope. Still an excellent read though, especially for the general reader.

[fried]

I have to agree, the last part of the book was by far the weakest. Probably more current affairs than History for a book of this scope. Still an excellent read though, especially for the general reader.

[remus]

Just finished off 'Power of the Dog' and 'Cartel', both quality (if pretty brutal in places). Great recommendation.

[Will Hunt]

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.

I would like to echo Moose's sentiments from the first page of this thread. Get it read.

[DaveC]

I've been working my way through a couple of volumes of collected/selected non-fiction recently.

First, Jorge Luis Borges, the great Argentine author. I picked up a 20+year old book a few months ago and I can tell you that Borges was a fabulous, thoughtful and wide-ranging writer of commentary, reviews and prologues as well as one of the great novelists of his time. If you get the chance to read any of his non-fiction, don't let it go past, it's superb.

Second, a recent release of the collected non-fiction writing of the American author Saul Bellow has given some wonderful insights into the motivations, influences and methods of another of the great writers of the 20th century.

Two fine books that will have pride of place on my shelves and which I will undoubtedly return to again.

[DaveC]

I have to comment about Matt Ridley's "The Rational Optimist", a book I read a few years back and found to be rather poor...no, it was actually worse than that! A book to make the 1% feel better about themselves might be one way of describing it! Sorry Toby, it really is just a rather disingenuous book of economic history that goes on to draw presumptuous conclusions that do not bare close examination and which ignore anything that might conceivably upset the author's viewpoint.