Currently reading Thinking Fast and Slow it's fucking excellent.

I've wanted to read that for a long time, Evie!

Robbin Hobbs Fool's Errand. Yeah, it's part of a series, but I really love her Assasin's trilogy, all good reading for relaxing.

(April 22, 2016 at 11:43 am)vorlon13 Wrote:

(April 22, 2016 at 10:28 am)Alex K Wrote: @vorlon

I love Ebert Reviews and I might just have to buy this, even if it's a transparent money grab by the publisher

There's more !!  And I think they've been out long enough a little looking and you won't be paying the full list price.

There's a youtube channel in honor of Ebert, yourmoviesucksdotorg, or yms. Great reviewer, you should check him out.

The Checklist Manifesto by Atul Gawande

Pretty neat little book, it gets the reader to grasp the power of this little device that revolutionized aviation a long time ago and yet has rarely ever been systematically employed in any other human endeavor. Besides the history lessons and the brief yet interesting descriptions of what goes on in such areas as modern construction, aviation, medicine and finances and how they have and could benefit from using checklists, he also provides us with a lot of personal anecdotes from his experience as a surgeon and other such stories from the OR. It's a thoroughly enjoyable read, and I heartily recommend it.

Holy crap! the "Newsfeed Trilogy" by Mira Grant. These books are so not just another zombie series. Seriously, if you like zombie fiction at all, read these books.

"Butcher Bird" by Richard Kadrey is another recent read that was fan-fucking-tastic. It's a supernatural thrill with twists and turns and plenty of blasphemous ideas.

While browsing for something to read I came across my Richard Morgan books. I cannot recommend this guy enough, especially "Black Man" (aka Thirteen) and the Takeshi Kovacs series (though the third one does get a little out there). If grimdark sci-fi were a genre, this guy would fit snugly there.

I think I'm going to have to pull up the audio books at work and re-read his stuff. It's been a while and I'm in the mood for something dark.

First Women

by

Kate Andersen Brower


Without being catty, all kinds of interesting vignettes about US First Ladies (mostly Jackie Kennedy on, with a few mentions of some before), usually about them interacting with each other, but also with enough of their challenges with their respective administrations too.

I was surprised to learn Mamie Eisenhower was all but nasty to Jackie during her tour of the White House prior to moving in. It's interesting which pairs of First Ladies got along especially well (frequently crossing party lines) and which ones didn't (surprisingly, being in the same party is no guarantee of comity).

For instance, Rosalyn Carter and Hillary didn't experience much love for each other, Hillary not wanting to associate with a First Lady of a single term president of the same party. As expected, Nancy Reagan didn't get along with any of the others, particularly Barb Bush, who is famously noted as having her own copy of Kitty Kelley's Nancy Reagan tell all book, but disguised with the dust jacket from another book entirely so she could read it wherever she liked.

Betty Ford's struggles with drug and alcohol addiction is carefully discussed, even to the extent of describing her families intervention. Michelle Obama is clearly eager to leave the 'fish bowl' of living in the White House. Pat Nixon had some interesting (even disturbing) experiences with President Nixon's inner circle. Nancy Reagan criticized Rosalyn Carter for sitting in on cabinet meetings, yet freely worked behind the scenes to engineer the composition of President Reagan's cabinet to suit herself (snicker).

The book is just full of goodies!!

"Pretties" by Scott Westerfeild. I am now obsessed with the series, because it's so entertaining. So 10/10.

I am now reading Specials. I like that too.

(May 17, 2016 at 8:29 pm)Martian Mermaid Wrote: "Pretties" by Scott Westerfeild. I am now obsessed with the series, because it's so entertaining. So 10/10.

I am now reading Specials. I like that too.

Ohhhhh. No spoilers! Those are on my short list!