Baron's Book Club...est January 1, 2023.

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One thing I've learned from my book club is that many people, myself included, have certain types of books that they tend to read, but it is always
a treat when you are dreading a book somebody else suggests and it turns out to be really excellent.

This month's selection was Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President by Candice Millard and
I've never been much for American History and didn't know much of anything about James Garfield. Nor did I want to. In fact, I had to force
myself to read it and figured it would be tedious.

Well, it turned out that it was not that. I couldn't put it down and I learned that Garfield was one of the more accomplished, eloquent
and intriguing guys to ever serve as President

So, there are many great books out there and it's always nice when somebody drops one in your reluctant lap and it opens your eyes. Sometimes it's nice
to get out of your comfort zone.

As an aside, I downloaded the book through an app called "Libby" which requires only a library card to have instant access to the SAILS library network. I
don't use a lot of apps, but this one is completely free and doesn't even force you to watch ads or give up your e-mail.

I can find almost anything I need using the search filter and books download with a dizzying speed using a simple, easy-to-use interface. If you are still buying books
then you might want to check Libby out. Did I mention it's free? So I did. Your tax dollars at work to actually provide something useful.

I like to listen to audiobooks while driving or working around the house and have probably listened to 20 or so over the last few months.
 
Hawg73 said:
As an aside, I downloaded the book through an app called "Libby" which requires only a library card to have instant access to the SAILS library network. I
don't use a lot of apps, but this one is completely free and doesn't even force you to watch ads or give up your e-mail.

I can find almost anything I need using the search filter and books download with a dizzying speed using a simple, easy-to-use interface. If you are still buying books
then you might want to check Libby out. Did I mention it's free? So I did. Your tax dollars at work to actually provide something useful.

I like to listen to audiobooks while driving or working around the house and have probably listened to 20 or so over the last few months.
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My wife and sister are both ardent advocates for Libby.
 
@Hawg73
i use libby also,plus my local library app
as for books i'd never think of reading,you gave me that hint with the one about the world's fair. i also then read the one about marconi and another murderer. very cool books i never would have picked up otherwise.
 
TipRoast said:
My wife and sister are both ardent advocates for Libby.
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They are correct.

I have a Samsung Galaxy Flip Z phone and have listened to audiobooks through Libby for hours and it seems to use very little battery power and
works seamlessly while on long drives. Neither of which I expected would be the case. Having access to wi-fi is always better, but I've downloaded new books over
the air while on the road and it still works pretty quickly. With Wi-fi it takes less than 10 seconds to download and start listening.

These are the same books which can cost around 15 bucks on Audible, which used to be my go-to source for audiobooks. I actually
prefer the interface on Libby which is quite easy to "rewind" with precision when you miss something.

I was reluctant to try it initially, figuring it was just another digital scam, but am glad my sister-in-law kept after me to try it.

One down side is that you only have 7 days to listen or read before it reclaims your download and there are limited copies available, so I have sometimes had to wait to
download a 2nd time and finish one. However, it remembers where you left off and cues you up there, which impressed me.

I could quibble about other small things, but there isn't a lot to bitch about instant free books wherever you have a cell signal. Just like
physical books, new releases that are in demand can be tough to get, but I understand there is a way to add other library systems besides
SAILS and increase your odds of finding a particular title. I haven't got around to figuring that out yet because with tens of thousands of titles I
can always find something that appeals to me.
 
I'm at the library a lot. One time I was asked what time did I come in. Them thinking I was staff. I use to schedule rooms for meetings, at one point they saw me and handed me the keys to open the room up.

Such a great resource to have.

#AvidReader
 
HSanders said:
@Hawg73
i use libby also,plus my local library app
as for books i'd never think of reading,you gave me that hint with the one about the world's fair. i also then read the one about marconi and another murderer. very cool books i never would have picked up otherwise.
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just finished reading Thuderstruck. Erik Larson is one of my favorite authors. If you haven’t already, check out Dead Wake. It’s the story of the sinking of the Lusitani.
 
jetsknicks1 said:
just finished reading Thuderstruck. Erik Larson is one of my favorite authors. If you haven’t already, check out Dead Wake. It’s the story of the sinking of the Lusitani.
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got a run of a thriller author i just ran across,then i will. thanks!
 
As always, Big stack of Books for Christmas. Always some good biographies Have read John Thaw the Biography. Not a great book but a good read on the very focused life of a fine actor. My sports gambling days sre done and gone. But the great Billy Walters autobiography Gambler, Secrets from a Life at Risk, is a hoot. Two thumbs up. Mel Brooks Autobiography All About Me is for sure all about him. And as always lots of fun. 2 more thumbs up., and 1/3 through David Meyers Bio on Gram Parsons, Twenty Thousand Roads. Sad ending on its way for sure, but loved Gram and the Burrito Bros. Excellent read so far.
 
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I am reading Empire of the Summer Moon by S C Gwynne. It is a historical book about the Comanche nation, from their first encounters with Texicans to their eventual defeat by the US Calvary and Texas Rangers.
It was the longest war, over 40 years, that the US had with any of the Western native nations.
I had not heard of the book until I read that Taylor Sheridan, who produced Yellowstone, 1883, and 1923, was going to make a series based on the book. It peak my interest, so I decided to read the book before the series is made.

The book is well written and well researched.
 
Here's some reviews of a few books that I've recently read or listened to. These were all audio books for me.

The Three Body Problem by Cixin Liu - this is pretty famous, and deservedly so. I don't want to give away too much of the plot, so all I say here is that is a hard science-fiction book with some very imaginative physics. It's the first book of a trilogy, and I've heard that the second and third books are even better than the first.

Ball Lightning by Cixin Liu - this is a prequel to the series above, but it's a stand-alone book. It too has some very out-there physics concepts, and I read it first, even though I didn't know it was a prequel when I first got into it.

To Sleep In A Sea Of Stars by Christopher Paolini - another hard science fiction book, but more traditional than the Cixin books. This one has Heinlein-esque, Starship Troopers feel to it. The main character, early in the story, is a xenobiologist that encounters a semi-sentient alien life form that is a full-body suit that makes her almost impregnable. She then has a series of encounters with two antagonistic alien species, the "Jellies" and the "Nightmares" - along the way, she befriends the crew of a merchant vessel with FTL capabilities and an odd crew of misfits, including its shipmind, Gregorovitch. The person reading this huge novel had to do about 15 separate voices, and she did them all well, especially Gregorovitch. But she did a fine job on all the other meatbags, too.

All three books are highly recommended, but Paolini's book, in audio form, is a real treat.

I went through all of the above while hiking (rucking) around my neighborhood. I also spent some time re-reading (in print form) all of John Sandford's "Prey" novels, in order. I had read about three quarters of them before, but this time I went through them methodically. A friend had given me his collection, which was missing only three or four books plus the three most recent. I have just one more to go (Toxic Prey) and I'll be picking that up at the library tomorrow. It takes me about two days to consume one of the Prey books.
 
TipRoast said:
Here's some reviews of a few books that I've recently read or listened to. These were all audio books for me.

The Three Body Problem by Cixin Liu - this is pretty famous, and deservedly so. I don't want to give away too much of the plot, so all I say here is that is a hard science-fiction book with some very imaginative physics. It's the first book of a trilogy, and I've heard that the second and third books are even better than the first.

Ball Lightning by Cixin Liu - this is a prequel to the series above, but it's a stand-alone book. It too has some very out-there physics concepts, and I read it first, even though I didn't know it was a prequel when I first got into it.

To Sleep In A Sea Of Stars by Christopher Paolini - another hard science fiction book, but more traditional than the Cixin books. This one has Heinlein-esque, Starship Troopers feel to it. The main character, early in the story, is a xenobiologist that encounters a semi-sentient alien life form that is a full-body suit that makes her almost impregnable. She then has a series of encounters with two antagonistic alien species, the "Jellies" and the "Nightmares" - along the way, she befriends the crew of a merchant vessel with FTL capabilities and an odd crew of misfits, including its shipmind, Gregorovitch. The person reading this huge novel had to do about 15 separate voices, and she did them all well, especially Gregorovitch. But she did a fine job on all the other meatbags, too.

All three books are highly recommended, but Paolini's book, in audio form, is a real treat.

I went through all of the above while hiking (rucking) around my neighborhood. I also spent some time re-reading (in print form) all of John Sandford's "Prey" novels, in order. I had read about three quarters of them before, but this time I went through them methodically. A friend had given me his collection, which was missing only three or four books plus the three most recent. I have just one more to go (Toxic Prey) and I'll be picking that up at the library tomorrow. It takes me about two days to consume one of the Prey books.
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Cixin Liu stories are very creative, and original...but something about the way the stories are told, that Chinese culture coming through, doesn't resonate with me.

To Sleep In A Sea Of Stars

Sounds right up my alley! Looking into it now.

From the Synopsis, I am getting some Terry Pratchett/Harry Harrison vibes.

For my part, I am currently reading 3 books...kind of depends on my mood...

I am re-reading the Eisenhorn series...
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I just started reading Food Stamp Warrior
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And...technically I haven't begun reading it yet, but my friend is going to lend me when he is done, probably next weekend...about SBF and the FTX collapse...which also caught up Tom Brady and Giselle for those that remember the commercials....

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What a gem of a thread. How did I miss this?

I am an avid reader.

I am about to start a book called "The Psychology of Money" by Morgan Housel. I read about a third of it in the bookstore. It discusses our behavior toward money. He had lots of anecdotes to start which were really interesting.
 
Baron Samedi said:
Cixin Liu stories are very creative, and original...but something about the way the stories are told, that Chinese culture coming through, doesn't resonate with me.
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I agree that the stories are told in a way that seems odd to those with Western literature sensitivities. I think part of it is due to the cultural isolation of Chinese SF writers, and the fact that it's only relatively recently that Chinese authors have been exposed to the Golden age of science fiction writers (Heinlein, Asimov, Clarke, et alia) as well as other luminaries such as Neal Stephenson and Dan Simmons and Vernor Vinge and David Brin plus all the cyberpunk writers.

It's my view that Cixin and other modern Chinese writers in this genre are melding traditional, post-Cultural Revolution styles with Occidental themes and concepts that have evolved over that last 70 years or so (let's pick 1957 as a good jumping off point). Also, some of the dissonance that we Westerners perceive may not be present in the original Chinese, as Cixin may be paying homage to a previous generation of Chinese literature while at the same time writing for modern audiences in both China and the West.
 
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Mazz22 said:
What a gem of a thread. How did I miss this?

I am an avid reader.

I am about to start a book called "The Psychology of Money" by Morgan Housel. I read about a third of it in the bookstore. It discusses our behavior toward money. He had lots of anecdotes to start which were really interesting.
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If you're into that sort of thing, one of the best books I have read recently is "Broken Money" by Lyn Alden. Lyn is F'ing brilliant, a student of history, understands financial markets and can put things into context.

It's fascinating.
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Baron Samedi said:
If you're into that sort of thing, one of the best books I have read recently is "Broken Money" by Lyn Alden. Lyn is F'ing brilliant, a student of history, understands financial markets and can put things into context.

It's fascinating.
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Thank you! I am interested as I recently hired a financial advisor and am trying to get up to speed quickly on how trading works. I have some working knowledge from my 401k fund but I am trying to learn more of the minutia and nuances of the markets ...
 
Mazz22 said:
Thank you! I am interested as I recently hired a financial advisor and am trying to get up to speed quickly on how trading works. I have some working knowledge from my 401k fund but I am trying to learn more of the minutia and nuances of the markets ...
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That's a deeper hole than you might think.

This book, Broken Money, is a Macro economic perspective, but what little I do know about things like trading, you have to start with Macro.

Best of luck trading...but beware....there is an old adage, 90% of traders lose 90% of their money in 90 days, and in my experience, that's true....not an exaggeration.

If you do get involved in trading, my one little bit of not financial advice is "Get long, get paid". The longer your time horizon the less risk you assume. And don't do leverage, that's pretty much how traders end up getting Rekt. The real secret is buy when buying feels bad and, sell when selling feels bad, and never try to catch the top or the bottom because you'll miss it.

There is a certain trader I follow, amongst many, who has a mantra......"Buy big green candles, win big red dildos". Don't FOMO into things that have already taken off. Just look for the next one that hasn't taken off yet.
 
Five books this time.

The Sunlit Man by Brandon Sanderson

This is another Sanderson effort that takes place in the Cosmere, where the Mistborn and Stormlight Archive series are set. However, unlike those series, it has quite a bit of technology in it. Interstellar flight is mentioned in passing, although it's not part of the plot. There aren't any computers, but flying cities are an important plot element. The story centers around a character named Nomad and his arrival on the weird planet Canticle, where he is immediately injected into a conflict between two groups of locals. As usual with Sanderson, there's a magic system that's similar to (but slightly different from) magic systems we've seen in his other works. If you're already invested in the Cosmere, then you'll want to read this book. But if you're new to Sanderson, it would be better to start elsewhere (the Mistborn series, Elantris, or my favorite, Warbreaker).

This was an audiobook for me.


Beggars In Spain by Nancy Kress

The novella won both the Hugo and Nebula awards. Kress later lengthened it and turned it into a complete novel, and that's what I read. The title comes from the basic question asked in the novel, which takes a few forms, such as "What do productive people owe (if anything) to the nonproductive?" Another way it's phrased is this: "Are the weak able to make claims against the strong simply because they are weak?" The novel is set in the near future when gene modification allows parents to select various enhancements for their children, and one of those is Sleeplessness. The Sleepless form a society that is highly productive and technologically advanced and thus grows to be powerful, and hated, by the Sleepers. It's an objectivist, Ayn Rand on steroids society, and Kress explores what it means to take the philosophy to extremes.

This was an old-school paperback for me.


The Edge by David Baldacci

This is the sequel to The 6:20 Man, but I didn't know that when I got it out of the library. The main character is Travis Devine, who is Baldacci's version of Jack Reacher - he's big, he's good with his hands and with weapons, and he's a trouble magnet. I've read a decent amount of Baldacci, and I don't think this is one of his better efforts. But it does take place in Maine and is packed with action.

This was an audiobook for me.


The Blessing Way by Tony Hillerman

I have just finished up all the John Sandford books about Lucas Davenport, and Virgil Flowers, and Letty Davenport, and was looking around for another series. Mrs. TR suggested I try the Navajo Tribal Police series by Hillerman. So I did, and I have to say, it's going to take more than this book to get me intrigued. Although I do read a lot of fantasy, I don't read any occult or horror books, and there was just too much woo-woo in this book to hold my interest. And a little bit of the description of the stark desert landscape is fine, but after a while it gets repetitive. I also thought the way flashbacks were handled was clumsy, and at times I couldn't figure out what was going on with timelines. Mrs. TR tells me that this book is the weakest in the series and that it gets much better, so perhaps I'll try another one, but at this point my thirst for spirit animals and taciturn law officers has been slaked.

This was an audiobook for me.


Camino Ghosts by John Grisham

This is the third book in the Camino Island series. And although it's the weakest, it's still pretty good. Unlike the first two, which feature Bruce Cable, the affable bookstore owner and social operator, this book concentrates on several other characters, many of whom were not in the previous two books. It's the story of Dark Isle, an island just north of Camino Island that was once the home to runaway slaves. The story concerns the last living inhabitant of Dark Isle, Lovely Jackson, and her fight to get acknowledged as the rightful owner of the island. The book was read by Whoopi Goldberg, who I think did a fine job. She isn't quite up to the level of some of the professional book readers I've heard (many of the characters were voiced very similarly), but she was a good choice, as over half the characters in the book are women.

This was an audiobook for me.
 
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I like Sanderson, but I’ve never been just blown away by him. I’ve enjoyed the Stormlight series, but I’d never re-read them the way I’ve re-read Patrick Rothfuss’s two major novels multiple times.
Don’t get me wrong, the world is outstanding, but the books plod along too much, IMHO.
 
Five books again - four fiction, and one non-fiction (maybe).


The Dark Forest and Death's End by Cixin Lui - the second and third books in the trilogy that start with The Third Body Problem. The second book in the trilogy is better than the first (which is pretty good). The third book is better than the second. The physics is quite inventive, and there is a lot of character development as well as scene setting. Some of the dialogue between characters seems unnatural to me, due to my long exposure to more Western-oriented literature, but once attuned to that, it seemed fine.

These were both audiobooks for me.


Phantom Orbit by Daniel Ignatius - this is a book I might have written myself. It deals very closely with space operations: the scientist and engineers in that business, the events that happen in space in terms of today's headlines. Not a bad story, but the book cover says it's a "thriller" and I think that's a stretch. The first 100 pages are all set up and dialog and there's very little action at all.

This was a hardcover paper book for me.


Station Eleven by Emilie St. John Mandel - another very well-known book. This is a post- (and pre-) pandemic book, but the pandemic agent in the novel is much more virulent than COVID-19. In fact, it's 99.99% lethal, and it takes only a few hours to take a person who has contracted it down. So most of the world's population has died, and a great deal of the book is concerned with the survivors. However, several of the survivors are connected to a character that dies (via heart-attack) just as the pandemic is hitting, and the influence of that character on the lives of the some of the survivors is explored in detail by revealing some of that character's pre-panemic life, as well as the lives of those around him. If you like post-apocalypse novels, then this is a good one to tie into. What's notable is that it was published in 2014, well before the COVID-19 pandemic.

This was an audiobook for me.


The Singularity Is Nearer by Ray Kurzweil - this is non-fiction, I think. Because it tries to predict the near-future, it has a speculative fiction aspect to it, but Kurzweil's predictions about AI made 20 years in his book The Singularity is Near gives his predictions more credibility than many others who try to speculate what's going to happen in tech in the next 20 years. Basically, the premise of this book, and the previous one, is that the AI techniques that are already revolutionizing computer science will soon be felt in other fields such as food production and medicine, and the rate of change in these fields will make the societies in which they occur unrecognizable to us today. A lot of the first five chapters of the book is spent on data, with a few predictions thrown in here and there. But it's in chapter six, where medical issues are discussed, that the really interesting predictions are made.

This was a hardcover paper book for me.
 
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