Author Topic: JD Book Club: What Are You Reading Now?  (Read 189664 times)

Offline Chris M

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Re: JD Book Club: What Are You Reading Now?
« Reply #420 on: May 31, 2008, 09:59 AM »


Story about the lone survivor of SEAL Team 10 in Afghanistan and the subsequent relief/rescue attempts in 2005.  Pretty good read so far, I bought it last night and got through the first 30 pages.  Probably would have read more but I was exhausted when I started reading.  This guy knows what being a bad ass is all about and he fills the part perfect.
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Offline Reid

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Re: JD Book Club: What Are You Reading Now?
« Reply #421 on: May 31, 2008, 06:37 PM »

Offline Phrubruh

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Re: JD Book Club: What Are You Reading Now?
« Reply #422 on: June 13, 2008, 03:01 PM »
I'm currently on "The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic and Madness at the Fair that changed America" by Erik Larson. Nonfiction about the building of the 1893 Chicago World's Fair and the serial killer preying on women that attended the fair. He killed somewhere between 27 and 200 people during the fair. It's pretty amazing stuff considering it's true.



Author Erik Larson imbues the incredible events surrounding the 1893 Chicago World's Fair with such drama that readers may find themselves checking the book's categorization to be sure that The Devil in the White City is not, in fact, a highly imaginative novel. Larson tells the stories of two men: Daniel H. Burnham, the architect responsible for the fair's construction, and H.H. Holmes, a serial killer masquerading as a charming doctor. Burnham's challenge was immense. In a short period of time, he was forced to overcome the death of his partner and numerous other obstacles to construct the famous "White City" around which the fair was built. His efforts to complete the project, and the fair's incredible success, are skillfully related along with entertaining appearances by such notables as Buffalo Bill Cody, Susan B. Anthony, and Thomas Edison. The activities of the sinister Dr. Holmes, who is believed to be responsible for scores of murders around the time of the fair, are equally remarkable. He devised and erected the World's Fair Hotel, complete with crematorium and gas chamber, near the fairgrounds and used the event as well as his own charismatic personality to lure victims. Combining the stories of an architect and a killer in one book, mostly in alternating chapters, seems like an odd choice but it works. The magical appeal and horrifying dark side of 19th-century Chicago are both revealed through Larson's skillful writing.
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Offline Chris M

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Re: JD Book Club: What Are You Reading Now?
« Reply #423 on: June 13, 2008, 03:11 PM »
I finished "Lone Survivor" the othe night..wow is all I can say, just wow.

Right now, new book is "Lone Star Rising."  It's pretty much all about the colonization of Texas by the Americans from the filibusters before the Mexican Revolution and goes through the end of the Texas Revolution and the creation of the Republic of Texas.
"Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote."  Ben franklin


Embrace the suck.

Offline Reid

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Re: JD Book Club: What Are You Reading Now?
« Reply #424 on: June 16, 2008, 02:39 PM »

Offline Keonobi

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Re: JD Book Club: What Are You Reading Now?
« Reply #425 on: June 16, 2008, 02:45 PM »
Before the Storm, book one of the Black Fleet Crisis trilogy.  I haven't read this one before and its pretty good.  There is a pre-prequel story line about Luke and Leia's mom (and she apparently isn't from Naboo), which I'm not really paying attention to, but the handling of the new alien culture, the Yevetha, is pretty neat, along the lines of some of Timothy Zahn's writing.  That part atleast reminds me a lot of Outbound Flight.  I think I'm about three quarters of the way through, and I'm looking forward to Shield of Lies.
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Offline JediJman

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Re: JD Book Club: What Are You Reading Now?
« Reply #426 on: June 16, 2008, 11:34 PM »


About half way through and still one of the few to actually enjoy this series.  Maybe its just been that long since I read NJO.   ;)
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Offline Nathan

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Re: JD Book Club: What Are You Reading Now?
« Reply #427 on: June 17, 2008, 12:37 AM »


"Now as never before, exotic animals and plants are crossing the globe, borne on the swelling tide of human traffic to places where nature never intended them to be. Bird-eating snakes hitchhike to Hawaii in the landing gear of airliners; pernicious European zebra mussels, riding in ships' ballast water, disrupt aquatic ecosystems across the United States; feral camels and poisonous foreign toads plague Australia; giant Indonesian pythons lurk beneath homes in suburban Miami. As alien species jump from place to place and increasingly crowd native and endangered species out of existence, biologists speak fearfully of “the homogenization of the world.” Never mind bulldozers and pesticides: the fastestgrowing threat to biological diversity may be nature itself.

Out of Eden is a dazzling personal journey through this strange and shifting landscape. Alan Burdick tours the front lines of ecological invasion in the company of world-class scientists: in Hawaii, Tasmania, Guam, San Francisco; in lush rain forests, aboard an Alaska-bound oil tanker, inside a spacecraft-assembly facility at NASA. Wry and reflective, animated and provocative, Out of Eden is a search both for scientific answers and for ecological authenticity, from a writer of remarkable range and talent."
« Last Edit: June 17, 2008, 12:37 AM by Nathan »
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Offline name

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Re: JD Book Club: What Are You Reading Now?
« Reply #428 on: June 18, 2008, 08:43 AM »
I've picked that book up several times at B&N over the past year, and for one reason or another haven't bought it. 

Maybe I'll go get it today.....

probably not.

 :-[
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Offline Phrubruh

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Re: JD Book Club: What Are You Reading Now?
« Reply #429 on: June 18, 2008, 09:39 AM »
Now reading Deception Point by Dan Brown.



The time is now and President Zachary Herney is facing a very tough reelection. His opponent, Senator Sedgwick Sexton, is a powerful man with powerful friends and a mission: to reduce NASA's spending and move space exploration into the private sector. He has numerous supporters, including many beyond the businesses who will profit from this because of the embarrassment of 1996, when the Clinton administration was informed by NASA that proof existed of life on other planets. That information turned out to be premature, if not incorrect. (This story is true; I repeat, Dan Brown's research is very, very good.) The embattled president is assured that a rare object buried deep in the Arctic ice will prove to have far-reaching implications on America's space program. The find, however, needs to be verified.

Enter Rachel Sexton, a gister for the National Reconnaissance Office. Gisters reduce complex reports into single-page briefs, and in this case the president needs that confirmation before he broadcasts to the nation, probably ensuring his reelection. It's tricky because Rachel is the daughter of his opponent. Rachel is thrilled to be on the team traveling to the Arctic circle. She is a realist about her father's politics and has little respect for his stand on NASA, but Senator Sexton cannot help but have a problem with her involvement.

Adventure, romance, murder, skullduggery, and nail-biting tension ensue. By the end of Deception Point, the reader will be much better informed about how our space program works and how our politicians react to new information. Bring on the next Dan Brown thriller!
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Offline Nathan

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Re: JD Book Club: What Are You Reading Now?
« Reply #430 on: June 20, 2008, 07:03 PM »
I've picked that book up several times at B&N over the past year, and for one reason or another haven't bought it. 

Maybe I'll go get it today.....

probably not.

 :-[

I would recommend it, if you're at all interested in the topic. It's also a pretty fast read, since there are no footnotes or anything. (It doesn't even have a bibliography, which I'm actually finding rather annoying.)
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Offline JediJman

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Re: JD Book Club: What Are You Reading Now?
« Reply #431 on: June 22, 2008, 11:11 PM »


Does anyone else think this scene looks like its about to turn into gay porn?
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Offline Phrubruh

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Re: JD Book Club: What Are You Reading Now?
« Reply #432 on: June 24, 2008, 03:13 PM »
It does look like a romance novel cover. Were is Fabio?
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Offline Nathan

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Re: JD Book Club: What Are You Reading Now?
« Reply #433 on: June 24, 2008, 04:42 PM »
Philistines. :P
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Offline Nathan

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Re: JD Book Club: What Are You Reading Now?
« Reply #434 on: June 25, 2008, 01:36 AM »


I bet I'm the only one on this site who hasn't read these yet.

Apparently I'm just now getting up to speed to 1997. :P *dons flannel and puts on Spice Girls cassette*
« Last Edit: June 25, 2008, 01:40 AM by Nathan »
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