Just read this thread (31 pages) and usually post on the 'generations' thread. Currently reading "Modern Strategy" by Colin S. Gray (1999) and "Ethics for a Broken World" by Tim Mulgan (2011). Also reading "The Big Game" by Sandy Schofield (aka Dean Wesley Smith & Kristine Kathryn Rusch) (1993, DS9 #4). I have a list of Cold War books to some extent. The one by John Lewis Gaddis is probably most commonly read. It is about 'containment' and there is an earlier edition and a later edition. Also Richard Smoke's book about nuclear strategy could be interesting too. "The Limits of Coercive Diplomacy" by George et al. is also good if not as relevant perhaps. Just read "Makers of Modern Strategy" (the earlier edition that was edited by Edward Mead Earle rather than Paret).
I was in Atlanta for a convention this weekend, and on the way down I finished The Quantum Thief, and started Time Travellers Never Die, by Jack McDevitt. I nearly finished it on the way home because the planes on both legs of my return trip took a good 45 minutes to take off after leaving the gate. It's better than some other time travel novels I've read over the past couple of years (Joe Haldeman's The Accidental Time Traveller was a big disappointment to me), but it's mostly been a series of vignettes as the time travellers go from time period to time period. There's a plot, but it's been far in the background for most of the book. I'm hoping that something big happens in the last 50 pages to make it worthwhile.
I am 1/4 way through Daybreak by Viktor Arnar Ingolfsson, it is the third book I have read by this author. It combines the two genres I enjoy most - Icelandic fiction and mystery novels. I have just finished Great Feuds in Science by Hal Hellman. I am still slowly getting through The Demon Haunted World by Carl Sagan and Independent People by Halldor Laxness. Independent People is a rather depressing but extremely well written novel.
I read TTND a couple years ago. I enjoyed it quite a bit (I'm a fan of McDevitt's novels). Currently, I'm reading "Pickett's Charge," by George R. Stewart. The book originally came out in the late '50s. The historian has a very unique writing style. His sense of humor is non-PC, for one thing (refreshing).
I love McDevitt-- he's definitely in the same class as Clarke and Asimov. I've read all of his Priscilla Hutchins (no relation ) and Alex Benedict novels, but I've never read Time Travelers Never Die. I should get that with my next batch.
I just started reading a novel by Italian author Luca di Fulvio, called "La Gang dei Sogni". So far, I am not impressed, because although I am a sucker for books about Italian immigrants in early 20th century NY (I know, weirdly specific, but it's a subject that I find very interesting), this one puts every cliché imaginable on the plate. Show, don't tell, author! Show, don't fucking tell.
I've just finished reading A Foreign Country by Charles Cumming, a spy thriller. It was diverting enough but I found it a bit plodding. Yes real life espionage is more about waiting around and watching than jumping through windows and having car chases, but it takes a good writer to make that still interesting and Cumming fell a bit short for me. Plus it's one of those books that spends ages getting to the finale, then seems in a rush to wrap things up. I swear some authors just get bored... Bought a new book that I plan to start tonight. The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey, sounds interesting at least!
I finished Someone to Watch Over Me by Yrsa Sigurdardottir last night. A young man, Jakob, who has Down Syndrome has been found by the courts to be the person who set a fire that kill 5 people. However lawyer Thóra Gudmundsdóttir is hired to investigate the fire and prove that Jakob is innocent. I worked out the most of the solution well before the end but apart from that it was a very good read. 4/5. I am now reading Magnitude 7.1 and 6.3: The People of Christchurch, Canterbury and Beyond Tell Their Stories complied by Debbie Roome.
Highlighting Bible to remember best parts and see where I've been. Reading Philip Yancey and thinking of picking up where I left off and reading the rest of The Help - Kathryn Stockett
I just finished "The City and The Stars" by Clarke and "Orphans of the Sky" by Heinlein. And I started "The Light of Other Days" by Clarke and Baxter. I'm in a sci-fi mood recently
clicked the second page, saw this thread, decided to take a picture of my "to read" pile been on a bit of a book buying binge lately Edit: currently reading Stargate: Retribution
I just finished beta reading blab's The King's Blood. It was fantastic. It should be on the shelves before the end of the year. Now I resume reading Arena Man.
Right now i'm reading "Russian Winter" by some author, The walking dead comics, Asimovs foundation books, a star trek book called "Troublesome Minds" and the fantastic "Computer Neworking, a top-down approach"