Our Current Rave

I just finished "City of Thieves ", a pageturner by David Benioff.  You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll stand up and cheer.  Or at least, I did.  And standing up is mission-critical.

Here is an Amazon link which looks great in previews but seems to become bashful when I publish it.

I don't want to deliver any spoilers but this is from the NY Times review.

Lev, an intelligent, awkward, eternally self-doubting Jewish teenager, and Kolya, a Slavic Adonis, have been imprisoned after wartime infractions. Awaiting execution, they’re summoned by the secret police: Colonel Grechko’s daughter is getting married, and eggs are needed for the cake. It would be easier to find snow in Saudi Arabia, but if Lev and Kolya can locate a dozen they’ll get back their ration cards — and their lives. Very soon, the odd couple are dodging a husband-and-wife team of cannibals and seducing their way — well, Kolya is, at least — through the starving city.

Comments

[Danube of Thought]

Try "Losing Mum and Pup" by Christopher Buckley. Granted the author is somewhat repellent, but his subject matter is wonderful. It's about his mother and father dying within a year of each other, and it shows some details about WFB that are endearing.

[Ignatz]

Since this is, at least for a time, the book thread I'd like to second what someone said here yesterday about 'God's Battalions' by Rodney Stark. Can't say he's the most fluid writer in existance but he does an excellent job distilling the historical truths of the Crusades.

And just for Kim; IIRC he/she had taken to calling the AGW bigwigs 'The Demon Princes' the other day.
Was rereading the original The Demon Princes by Jack Vance the last couple of days and in a supreme irony was reminded that one of the organizations in the book was called the IPCC. :)

[narciso]

I did finish Stephen Hunter's "I Sniper" which begins as a revenge fantasy, on the
likes of the Fonda, and the Ayers, and turns
into a more pedestrian thriller

[PD]

Ah, a book thread.

I know zero about the stock market. What single book should I read to gain a basic understanding of how it works?

[Jim Ryan]

PD, I hate to be a turd, but Jim Cramer's Real Money was good. It's not deep, but it's correct and also a page-turner.

[PaulV]

Ben Graham's "The Intelligent Investor" was written in 1949 but has been revised is good start

[PaulV]

Join Soros and short the Euro. He will make friends for Obama. NOT

[Danube of Thought]

"Get Rich Slowly" is invaluable.

[Soylent Red]

Outstanding book. Kind of a surprise because I had forgotten the book I was currently reading while out on a training. SO I swung into the local WalMart and picket it up on a lark. Couldn't put it down.

Try Devil in the White City, if you haven't. I'm currently reading A Bell for Adano.

[I'm modern enough to be reading Dickens and Shaw.]

Yes, Ignatz, that's where I got the 'Demon Princes' of the IPCC, but I stole it elsewhere.
=======================

[Further discussion? Fah!]

It's all they have in the camps.
=================

[Work for Food.]

We are all kinetic learners and workers now.
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[PD]

Thanks for the recommendations (and any still to come).

I guess I shouldn't say I know *zero* about the stock market. I do know that it represents real money, and thus wouldn't characterize it as "kind of like a tracking poll," in the words of our financial genius president.

[PD]

My current read: In Freedom's Cause. Kid's book about Wallace and Bruce by G.A. Henty. Of course, kid's books from 100 years ago are at a level a bit above those today.

[Thomas Collins]

The book I want to read is the "little black book" of clients of a potential NY gubernatorial candidate (see LUN).

I'll bet she'll get a cash donation for her campaign from every client she calls!

[Thomas Collins]

Whoops!

Here's the LUN.

[Thomas Collins]

Whoops!

Here's the LUN.

[anduril]

Stand Up While You Read This!

I think I'd have to be drunk to read shit like this. If I were drunk at least I wouldn't remember it.

[Captain Hate]

Granted the author is somewhat repellent

Somewhat??

If this is the book thread I'd like to recommend "The Brooklyn Follies" by Paul Auster.

[daddy]

I'd like to not recommend "Chop Suey--A Cultural History of Chinese Food in the United States."

After 107 pages and still there ain't a noodle within 3,000 miles of the US.

And "The Potato: How the Humble Spud Rescued the Western World" also stinks.

And I couldn't get past 5 pages of "Our Magnificent Bastard Tongue: The Untold Story of English", but that might just be me. Ughh.

[Patrick R. Sullivan]

Try "Losing Mum and Pup" by Christopher Buckley. Granted the author is somewhat repellent...

No kidding. He recently wrote a piece on CPAC in which he took an entirely gratuitous shot at Joseph McCarthy, that only told me he hadn't read his father's own "McCarthy and His Enemies" from the 50s. I'll bet he still believes Obama wrote his own autobiography.

[Patrick R. Sullivan]

I know zero about the stock market. What single book should I read to gain a basic understanding of how it works?

A Random Walk Down Wall Street by Princeton economist Burt Malkiel. It's as far as you can get from buffoons like Jim Cramer...which is a good thing.